‘Protect the last citizen first’: Justice Surya Kant takes charge as CJI

“Let justice protect the last citizen, for only then does it truly belong to all,” Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant asserted soon after taking oath on Monday, setting the tone for a tenure that would judge judicial success by how securely the law guards the weakest citizen.

Justice Kant asserted that the authority of courts flowed not from tradition or ceremony but from the trust of ordinary people.

The CJI was also of the opinion that justice must feel real in the lives of citizens — accessible, unbiased and humane. If the law failed to reach everyone, he said, justice would lose its meaning.

“Justice is not a privilege for a few — it is a guarantee for all, or it ceases to be justice,” he stated.

Judicial independence, Justice Kant added, would remain “non-negotiable”. Calling it “the armour of the Republic”, the CJI said this constitutional promise protected citizens from excesses of power.

The Constitution, he added, was the moral compass of the nation and must continue to guide judicial interpretation even as society evolved.

Identifying delay as one of justice’s “deepest wounds”, the CJI emphasised said the system must work with urgency without losing compassion.

“A case may rest in a file, but justice cannot be allowed to rest — not even for a moment,” he observed, adding that efficiency must never come at the cost of empathy or access.

On mediation, Justice Kant said consensual resolutions should not be mistaken for compromise, describing it as “justice without prolonged conflict”.

“Every judgment that resolves a legal doubt frees a thousand lives from uncertainty,” he said, emphasising that decisions which settle lives must be prioritised over litigation that merely extends conflict.

Asserting that the judiciary fulfilled its duty only when the law stood beside the ordinary citizen rather than above them, Justice Kant concluded: “When the last person in the queue feels protected by the law, only then can the judiciary say it has served the nation.”