India, Jan. 24 -- Justice delayed is justice destroyed, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said on Saturday, emphasising the need for high courts to be ever-vigilant and quick in providing justice. "For a small farmer whose land is being seized or a student wrongly denied admission, justice delayed is not just justice denied; it is justice destroyed.Access to justice is hollow if it comes after a decade of litigation," he said in his Fali Nariman Memorial Lecture.

The Bombay Bar Association organised a lecture titled "The Sentinel on Qui Vive: Article 226 as the Guardian of Access to Justice".

The CJI called the high court the primary sentinel, guarding the doorstep of the ordinary citizen through the Constitution's Article 226, wh...