Context: Recently, Chief Justice of India lashed out at the media for running 'kangaroo' courts with ill-informed debates on issues involving justice delivery and proving detrimental to the health of democracy.

Key Issues of Indian Judiciary

• There are concerted campaigns in media, particularly on social media against judges.

• There are rising number of media trials, affecting the fair functioning and independence of judiciary.

• New media tools are incapable of distinguishing between the right and the wrong, the good and the bad and the real and the fake.

• Media trials cannot be a guiding factor in deciding cases.

Kangaroo Courts

• The media often seen as running kangaroo courts, at times on issues even judges find difficult to reach on a conclusion.

• Biased views being propagated by media are affecting the people, weakening democracy, and harming the system.

• In this process, justice delivery gets adversely affected. 

• False narratives are also created about the supposed life led by Judges.

Legislative and Executive Arena

• It is often concluded that, judges being unelected, should not get into legislative and executive arenas.

• This ignores the Constitutional responsibilities that is placed on the judiciary.

• In the absence of judicial review, people’s faith in the Constitution will diminish.

• The burden on an already fragile judicial infrastructure is increasing by the day.

Road Ahead

• Though the media acts as a watchdog and brings us a platform where the people can know about the things happening in a society, it is important to know that this has only led to the whole of the world being biased against one community or a single person.

• Media should understand that its role is to raise issues which the public is facing. Media can be a voice for those who can’t speak for themselves. Media should not deliver judgment because in India we have a judiciary for this purpose.