Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Friday said truth had become a "victim" in the age of false news and as trolling became more and more rampant with the spread of social media, judges were no exception to this. Speaking at the American Bar Association India Conference 2023 in Delhi, the CJI said “people are short on their patience and tolerance” because they are not willing to accept perspectives which are different from their own.
"For every little thing that we do, and believe me, as judges we are no exception to this, for everything that you do, you face the threat of being trolled by someone who does not share your point of view," the CJI said.
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"Truth has become the victim in an age of false news. With the spread of social media, something which is said as a seed germinates into virtually a whole theory which can never be tested on the anvil of rational science," he said.
Justice Chandrachud was addressing the conference on the theme ‘Law in the age of Globalisation: Convergence of India and the West’ and spoke about a range of issues, including technology and its use by the judiciary, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, issues confronting the judicial profession and on having more women judges.
The Indian Constitution is a prime example of globalisation even before we ventured into the age of globalisation, the CJI said, adding that when it was drafted, its makers had possibly no idea of the lines along which humanity would evolve. "We did not possess notions of privacy, there was no internet. We did not live in a world which was controlled by algorithms. We certainly did not have a social media," he said.
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Trolling on social media, especially on the popular micro-blogging website Twitter, has become a huge problem in recent years. Former chief justice NV Ramana, too, had pointed this out when drew attention to the “attacks on the judiciary in the media, particularly social media” in his Constitution Day speech in November 2021.
Justice Chandrachud said just as humanity has expanded with the global advent of travel and technology, humanity also has retreated within by not being willing to accept anything that people, as individuals, believe in. "And I believe that is the challenge of our age," he said.
