India’s Supreme Court has established a standing committee to address the mental and physical well-being of judicial officers, turning a subject often treated as personal resilience into an institutional responsibility.
Justice K.V. Viswanathan will chair the five-member body. Its other members are psychiatrist Savita Malhotra, psychologist Rajat Mitra, advocate-on-record Mrinal Kanwar and Aarti Singh, a judicial registrar at the court’s Centre for Research and Planning.
The committee’s mandate is deliberately continuing rather than project-based. It will identify areas that require institutional intervention, coordinate welfare measures, develop guidance and periodically review initiatives intended to support judges.
The court said the work follows research by its Centre for Research and Planning into the experience of district judges. The subjects examined include heavy caseloads, long working hours, emotionally difficult cases, staffing and infrastructure shortages, transfers, administrative duties and work-life balance.
That framing links judges’ health to the quality and durability of the justice system. It also gives the committee a basis for asking whether working conditions, court administration and available support are contributing to problems that cannot be solved by counselling alone.
The initiative coincides with World Mental Health Day and draws on the Nauru Declaration on Judicial Well-being, adopted in 2024. The United Nations General Assembly subsequently designated July 25 as the International Day for Judicial Well-being.
The Supreme Court’s official announcement sets out the committee’s membership and mandate.
