The  chief justices of member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold a three-day meeting in New Delhi starting  on March 10 with a view to develop judicial cooperation among the member States.

Being hosted by Supreme Court of India, the Eighteenth Meeting of the chief justices of the Supreme Courts of the SCO member states is likely to discuss a host of issues including “Smart Courts” and the future of the Judiciary; Facilitating “Access to Justice”; Institutional Challenges facing Judiciary: Delays, Infrastructure, Representation, and Transparency.

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The first such meeting took place on September 22, 2006, in Shanghai, China.  The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has eight full members, four with observer status and another four as dialogue partners.

During the three-days deliberations, the Indian side, among others, will be represented by the Chief Justice of India, Justice D.Y.Chandrachud, two senior most  apex court judges after CJI,  Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice K.M. Joseph.

The meeting will involve a joint interaction with the Chief Justices / Chairpersons / Judges from the Member / Observer States and representatives from SCO Secretariat and SCO RATS and will conclude with the signing of a joint statement.

Created in 2001, Shanghai Cooperation Organization has China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as full members, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia having observers’ status and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal are dialogue partners.

Meeting of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts allows for a constant dialogue on a wide range of issues, giving a new impetus to the development of relations and allowing the development of mechanisms for further improving the work of the judiciary.

The seventeenth meeting of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the Member states of the SCO was held in Dushanbe. India assumed the rotational presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization for a year in September 2022 through the Samarkand declaration last year.

The SCO Charter, the regulations on meetings of heads of ministries and/or departments of the SCO Member States, the rules of procedure of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the SCO Member States, and the SCO Rules of procedure regulate the activities of the Meeting of the Presidents of the Supreme Courts (MPSC).