New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Justice Surya Kant is set to hold a series of bilateral meetings with senior judicial representatives from BRICS member states and partner countries during the BRICS Chief Justices’ Forum, scheduled to be held in New Delhi from September 4 to 6.
The high-level judicial gathering is expected to provide an institutional platform for strengthening cooperation among judiciaries, promoting comparative legal dialogue and deepening engagement between courts across different jurisdictions.
Senior judicial representatives from several BRICS and partner countries are expected to participate in the forum. The participating judicial leaders include Igor Krasnov of Russia, Zhang Jun of China, Boulos Gahmy Iskander Boulos of Egypt, Mahube Betty Molemela of South Africa, Ayatollah Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i of Iran, Sunarto of Indonesia and Mohammed Hamad Al Badi Al Dhaheri of the United Arab Emirates. Representatives from partner countries including Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also expected to attend.
The proposed bilateral engagements assume significance at a time when courts are increasingly dealing with legal issues that transcend national boundaries. Matters relating to international commerce, digital transactions, emerging technologies, investment protection, data governance, insolvency and cross-border enforcement increasingly require judicial dialogue and cooperation between jurisdictions.
The forum is expected to facilitate discussions on common challenges confronting modern justice-delivery systems and explore mechanisms for institutional collaboration. Court administration, technological transformation, access to justice, judicial education and cross-border legal cooperation are likely to feature prominently in the deliberations.
Justice Surya Kant has in recent weeks emphasised the importance of strengthening judicial cooperation and institutional capacity-building in an increasingly interconnected and multipolar world. His proposed engagements with foreign judicial counterparts are expected to advance greater mutual understanding between different legal systems while respecting their respective constitutional and jurisprudential traditions.
The BRICS judicial platform has gained greater significance as the grouping has expanded beyond its original economic focus to encompass wider areas of institutional cooperation. Judicial engagement can provide an avenue for sharing experiences in court administration, digitalisation, access to justice and the adjudication of complex transnational disputes.
At the 11th BRICS+ Legal Forum in New Delhi, Justice Surya Kant had proposed the establishment of a BRICS+ Judicial Fellowship, under which career judges could spend short periods observing judicial proceedings and practices in courts of other member jurisdictions. He had also suggested the creation of a shared jurisprudence repository, drawing upon India’s experience in digitising judicial records and case law.
Such a repository could allow courts in one jurisdiction to access relevant judgments from another jurisdiction while dealing with comparable questions of law. The initiative is aimed at encouraging comparative legal learning and strengthening institutional links between judiciaries.
Justice Surya Kant has described this broader vision as “Nyay Setu”, or a bridge of justice. The concept envisages moving judicial interaction beyond occasional diplomatic engagements towards a more structured system of comparative jurisprudence, judicial learning and institutional trust.
Judicial cooperation also has wider implications for economic activity. Predictable adjudication, effective enforcement of contractual obligations and institutional stability are important elements of the rule-of-law framework and can contribute to greater confidence in international trade and investment.
The upcoming Chief Justices’ Forum is therefore expected to take forward these discussions at the highest level of judicial leadership. The bilateral meetings may cover issues such as international commercial arbitration, cross-border litigation, insolvency, artificial intelligence, data governance, climate-related litigation and enforcement of foreign judgments.
The forum will also provide participating judiciaries with an opportunity to examine how different constitutional and legal traditions address common challenges while preserving their respective legal identities.
For India, hosting the BRICS Chief Justices’ Forum places the Supreme Court at the centre of a broader conversation on judicial cooperation among BRICS and partner jurisdictions. The engagements led by CJI Surya Kant are expected to complement India’s wider institutional outreach and reinforce the judiciary’s role in promoting cooperation based on the rule of law.
The September 4-6 gathering is consequently expected to go beyond ceremonial judicial diplomacy. At a time when courts are increasingly confronted with disputes shaped by globalisation, technological change and cross-border economic activity, the forum could help establish more durable mechanisms for judicial cooperation, comparative legal exchange and more effective justice delivery.
