Imaandari not mere ornament to character, it sustains justice and reputation: CJI Kant

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant on Saturday said ‘imaandari’ or integrity is not a mere ornament to character but a discipline that sustains both justice and reputation, as he called upon the students of law to let integrity be the basic structure of their character.

The CJI was delivering his keynote address during the international convention on ‘The Independence of Judiciary: Comparative perceptive on rights, institutions and citizens’ at OP Jindal Global University here.

On this occasion, the world’s largest moot court, ‘Nyayabhyasa Mandapam’ was inaugurated. The International Mooting Academy for Advocacy, Negotiation, Dispute Adjudication, Arbitration and Resolution (IMAANDAAR) was also inaugurated. Besides Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and MP and university’s Chancellor Naveen Jindal, several eminent jurists, legal scholars and senior advocates were also present.

CJI Kant began his address by saying, “They say, and I quote, ‘integrity is what you do when no one is watching, and courage is what you do when everyone is’.” This timeless adage captures the essence of what we inaugurate today, that is International Mooting Academy for advocacy, negotiation, dispute adjudication, arbitration and resolution, namely, IMAANDAAR, he said.

“This is a very cleverly crafted acronym which embodies the very ideal that the practice of law and indeed the pursuit of justice must always aspire to ‘imaandari’ or as we call integrity. This singular word carries moral weight far beyond the sum of its syllables,” said the CJI. “Imaandari is not a mere ornament to character. It is the discipline that sustains both justice and reputation. In an era where truth must compete with knowledge, where deep fakes distort, misinformation multiplies and digital arrests have become disturbingly routine, integrity and honesty are no longer lofty ideals. They are instruments of survival,” he said.

“And if I may speak from the vantage of experience, they are also the only legitimate shortcut to genuine success,” he said. Telling students that they are the stewards of what comes next, the CJI said the Constitution will endure only as long as your morality sustains it. “Let integrity be, because we are talking of ‘Imaandaar’, let integrity be the basic structure of your character and let nothing amend it,” he noted.

Speaking on the convention’s topic of independence of judiciary, CJI Kant recalled the quote of Durgabai, one of the 15 women members of the constituent assembly, who had said the judiciary has to feel that they are independent. It is only in that case that we can get efficiency in the administration of justice. Needless to say, her insight remains as urgent today as it was at the republic’s dawn, said the CJI.

Noting that this convention promises to deepen our shared understanding of how justice systems preserve credibility in changing times, the CJI said he always believed that comparative judicial dialogue is an act of humility, a reminder that while our constitutions speak in its own idiom, their values are universal.