New Delhi, Sept. 14 -- Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Monday said the infrastructure ecosystem must shift from "retrospective justice" to "preventive justice" by designing contractual and institutional frameworks that address disagreements before they turn into disputes.

Addressing the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference 2026 here, the CJI said the Rule of Law was not merely about courts correcting errors after a project had been disrupted, but also about ensuring clear expectations, properly defined powers, fair allocation of risks and credible, timely dispute resolution mechanisms.

"The finest compliment to a dispute resolution mechanism is not that it has resolved many disputes, but that the project it served had so little n...