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Judging the Judges
WSN Network
 Indian polity is
currently grappling with a stark ugly reality, and is seen as
powerless in dealing with it. A judge of the high court, who was set
to take over as judge of the Supreme Court, has been found deeply
involved in corrupt practices. Huge sections of legal fraternity
have risen against him, his elevation to the Supreme COurt has been
put on hold and impeachment proceedings are currently underway as
some 75 federal law makers have demanded that he be thrown out of
the judiciary.
Meanwhile, he
continues to be the judge of the high court.
India's system
of applying the corrective within the judiciary has been under
attack for quite some time now, and all earlier proceedings to get a
judge out of the system have failed, even in the most blatant of the
cases.
The Indian
Supreme Court appoints itself its judges, and keeps all other
institutions outside the system. Dismissing a judge is near
impossible, and so far impossible. There has been a lot of hue and
cry from the civil society ass well as the government also about
procedures for appointment and dismissal, and currently the country
is debating a Judges Standards and Accountability Bill aimed at
streamlining the mechanism to discipline serving judges.
For the
impeachment proceedings to even reach the floor of parliament is
prettty difficult. So far that happened only once in the Justice V.
Ramaswami case but the federal law makers failed to impeach him.
There is no formal way for citizens to complain against serving
judges.
It was suggested
that a National Judicial Council consisting of senior judges be set
up where anyone could file complaints against sitting judges who
could provide a range of punishments or recommend impeachment to
Parliament. But that bill ran into rough weather before a
Parliamentary Standing Committee, which wanted the NJC to consist of
more than just serving judges.
That bill
lapsed, but its latest version — renamed the Judges Standards and
Accountability Bill — reportedly does just that, creating Oversight
as well as Scrutiny Committees, in which both judges and non-judges
would look into complaints against serving judges.
Clearly, India
needs such a law, but its courts need to look at much more. Justice
delivery mechanism is so lopsidedly tilted in favour of the rich and
the powerful while those at the bottom wait for decades for
decisions in even simple cases.
Almost every
instance is an instance of justice delayed. Indian justice domain is
a costly area, and only the rich can benefit. Will
New Delhi
even start talking about this area rather than focussing the entire
debate only on corruption in the judiciary?
23
December 2009
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