Digital payment mechanisms will give rise to vexed legal issues: CJI

Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Monday said the fillip to adopting digital payment mechanisms by the Union government will give rise to complex legal issues, requiring lawyers and judges capable of dealing with the nuances of digital revolution and legal dynamics of the changing digital world.

“The encouragement for adopting digital payment mechanisms by the Indian Government will inevitably give rise to complex legal issues to address shortly,” he said at the Karnataka State Judicial Officers Association’s 18th biennial Conference.

A digitised world will help and prepare people for rise of unlawful activities and behaviour in the changing digital environment of the country, he said.

“We must view this development critically, not cynically,” the CJI said.

With the extension of digitisation to the banking and transaction services, concern about money laundering will also increase, he said.

Importantly, development of digital or e-communication infrastructure may itself seek legal recourse in cases involving several kinds of malware like ‘Trojan and worms’ leading to e-commerce services blackout, Justice Thakur said.

As judges one should understand that digitised society is at the threshold of dealing with major jurisprudential, as well as complex legal issues of “identification and promotion of rule of law in the digital world and on the Internet-based e-governance and e-commerce,” Thakur said.

He said delay in filling vacancies in sanctioned strength of courts and in increasing it with increase in institution of cases renders the judiciary inadequate to deliver its constitutional mandate. But that was no reason for people to get disheartened or frustrated.

Thakur also said that the judiciary in this country must to the last man remain committed to doing its best despite the daunting task before it.

“Delayed or slow justice is better than no justice at all. Having said that, I must compliment the Karnataka government for providing the required infrastructure and manpower for speedy and affordable justice to be a reality for the people of the state,” he said.