Additionally, CJI Kant held that public trust was the foundation of judicial authority. Unlike the other branches of government, the judiciary has neither the “power of the purse” nor “the power of the sword”, he said.
“Public trust is not decoration. It is, in fact, the only currency that authority is ever paid in, the only coin the judiciary has ever truly had,” observed CJI Kant.
He said such trust could not be taken for granted and had to be earned through the ordinary functioning of courts.
“That trust is not something an institution can earn once and then simply rely on forever. It has to be renewed continuously, and it is shaped far more by the accumulated ordinary experience people have of the system, case by case, than by any single moment of judgment,” added CJI Kant.