Constitution guides the nation only when citizens live by its values, says former Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud

Urging citizens to live by the values of the Constitution, former Chief Justice of India Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said the nation can be guided by its constitutional vision only when people embrace civic virtue and constitutional culture, while delivering the Founder’s Oration at Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore on Saturday.

He said the Constitution was more than a legal document; it was a guide for how people should live and treat one another. “The Constitution is a charter of principles that must accompany us beyond institutions and into our homes, workplaces, and public life,” he said. Its promise becomes real only when citizens take responsibility for upholding it in everyday life.

Justice Chandrachud said safeguarding the dignity and rights of others — even when opinions or identities differ — lay at the core of constitutional citizenship.

‘Hollow freedom’

He noted that freedom would become hollow when people sought rights for themselves while being indifferent to the rights of others.

On public debate, he said disagreement was integral to democracy but need not lead to personal antagonism. “Democracy does not ask us to think alike; it asks us to respect each other even when we do not,” he said, stressing that fraternity remained the stabilising force for social harmony.

He highlighted that civic responsibility extended to everyday choices — including the way citizens treat shared spaces, resources, and institutions. He also cautioned that technological progress and digital communication should not come at the cost of empathy or human connection, emphasising the need for responsibility while expressing opinions online.

Character of the nation

Justice Chandrachud emphasised the role of the younger generation, saying they would determine the character of the nation by how they understand and practise constitutional values.

He said institutions could advance constitutionalism only to the extent that citizens form a shared commitment to uphold it, adding that the future of the Constitution rested on the public’s willingness to live by its principles beyond legal enforcement