Have stopped morning walk due to spike in air pollution, says CJI

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Thursday, 24 October, said he had stopped going out for his morning walk owing to the rising levels of air pollution in the national capital.

In an informal interaction with journalists in the apex court, CJI Chandrachud said his doctor had advised him to avoid stepping out in the morning as it was better for him to remain inside than contract respiratory ailments.

"I have stopped going out for a morning walk from today (24 October). I usually go for a morning walk at around 4-4.15 am," he said, while referring to spike in the air pollution levels.

The 50th CJI, who will be demitting office on 10 November, also made an announcement on doing away with a mandatory criteria of holding a law degree for accrediting journalists covering proceedings of the apex court.

He said the accredited journalists would now get the facility to park their vehicles in the Supreme Court premises.

He also spoke about digitisation of records and judicial processes and the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in translating apex court judgements in various regional languages.

The CJI said retired district court judges were rendering their services with corrections to the AI-generated translations of judgements.

CJI Chandrachud said digitisation of records had helped judges with the access to read case files on their iPads, and even on flights.

On being asked about his post-retirement plans, the CJI said for the first few days, he would take rest.