Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said the “Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita liberates our democracy from the colonial mindset,” and its basic spirit should become as effective as possible, “this responsibility is now in front of all of us.”

Addressing the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Rajasthan High Court in Jodhpur, he said “We have abolished hundreds of colonial laws that have become completely irrelevant. After so many decades of independence, emerging from the mentality of slavery, the country has adopted the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in place of the Indian Penal Code.”

The Prime Minister said: “I believe that justice is always simple and clear but sometimes the process makes it difficult. It is our collective responsibility to make justice as simple and clear as possible and I am satisfied that the country has taken many historic and decisive steps in this direction.”

Justice instead of punishment is also the basis of Indian thinking, he said. The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita takes this human thinking forward.

The Prime Minister said the Indian judiciary has always fulfilled the moral responsibility of being vigilant and active on national issues. “The example of the removal of Article 370 from Kashmir and the constitutional integration of the country is before us,” he said.

Mr Modi said “the example of humanitarian laws like CAA is before us. What natural justice says in the national interest on such issues has been completely clear from the decisions of our courts. From the High Court to the Supreme Court, the judiciary has strengthened the resolution of ‘Nation First’ on such issues many times.”

“As you may remember, just on this 15th August, I have talked about a secular civil code from the Red Fort. Even though a government has become so vocal on this issue for the first time, our judiciary has been advocating it for decades. This clear stand of the judiciary on the issue of national unity will further increase the trust of the countrymen on the judiciary,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister said the country has changed rapidly in a decade. “We have risen from the 10th position ten years ago to become the 5th largest economy in the world.”

“Today, the dreams of the country are big, aspirations of the countrymen are big. It is important that we do new innovations according to the new India and modernize our systems. This ‘Justice for All’ is equally important for this. We are seeing that technology can play such an important role in our judicial system,” he said.

“Our e-courts project is the biggest example of how big a change can happen through the IT revolution. Today more than 18,000 courts in the country have been computerized. I have been told that information about more than 26 crore cases has been linked to a centralized online platform from the National Judicial Data Grid,” the Prime Minister said.

Today more than 3,000 court complexes and more than 1200 jails of the entire country have been connected through video conferencing, he said. “And I am happy that Rajasthan is also working at a very fast pace in this direction. Hundreds of courts here have been computerized,” he said.

“Paperless courts, e-filing, electronic service for summons, arrangement for virtual hearing, these are not ordinary changes. A litigant had to take any number of rounds of courts for his case,” he said.

Today, after decades, the country has taken effective steps to end the suffering of that common citizen, to end those rounds. This has awakened a new hope about justice. “We have to maintain this hope, we have to keep reforming our judicial system continuously,” he said.

The Prime Minister said “The Rajasthan High Court has completed 75 years at a time when our Constitution is also going to complete 75 years,“ he said.

“This is also a moment to celebrate the integrity and contributions of many great people. This is also an example of our faith in the Constitution. I congratulate all of you jurists and the people of Rajasthan on this occasion,” he said.

The Prime Minister received a grand welcome as he passed through the Jodhpur city to attend the Rajasthan High Court celebrations.