National   

Open up judicial council: legal fraternity

Special Correspondent

Exclusion of CJI from Judicial Council jurisdiction indefensible: Verma

New Delhi: An influential section of the legal fraternity strongly favours association of an "outsider" with the proposed National Judicial Council, a mechanism meant for dealing with errant judges.

At a seminar last week, organised by the United Lawyers' Association, former judges and senior lawyers were nearly unanimous that the disciplinary mechanism proposed in the Judges (Inquiry) Bill, 2006 [Bill no. 97 of 2006] remained a closed shop and ought to be re-examined. The former Attorney-General of India, Soli Sorabjee presided.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Sorabjee contexted the proposed measure in the larger felt need for transparency in all democratic institutions.

He referred to considerable disquiet over the absolute powers the apex court had come to enjoy in the matter of appointments while the existing "disciplinary" provisions of the Constitution [article 124(4) and Article 218] had not proved very practical or effective.

Mr. Sorabjee objected to the categorisation of "minor measure" as a form of penal action against an errant judge.

He also pointed out the curious provision that a penalised judge "could prefer an appeal to the Supreme Court."

Former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma thought that exclusion of the Chief Justice of India from the jurisdiction of the Judicial Council was indefensible. He argued that the parallel between the Prime Minister (who remains excluded from the Lok Pal regime) and the Chief Justice was misplaced; according to him the Prime Minister had to be necessarily entrusted with enormous executive functions whereas the CJI was merely obliged to deal with judicial duties, and therefore, there was no reason why the CJI should be excluded from any disciplinary arrangement. Justice Verma argued that the Prime Minister or the Vice-President should be associated with the Judicial Council.

Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal endorsed the idea of opening up the Judicial Council and suggested that the executive should not be excluded from any disciplinary regime.

However, he thought that presence of the Vice President or the Prime Minister would bring in questions of protocol, and, therefore, his preference would be for the inclusion of the Law Minister in the Judicial Council. His concern was that the chief should preside over the deliberations.

Justice Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, strongly advocated opening up of the appointment and disciplinary mechanisms.

He noted that society had a stake in such functions and these could "not be the preserve of a small freemasonry of the judiciary."

Harish Khare, Senior Associate Editor of The Hindu said the judiciary had disappointed civil society by the manner in which it had wielded so far its total and absolute control over its affairs.

He said the proposed National Judicial Council would not go very far because it failed to address the source of the mischief: the collegium arrangement.

There was general consensus against various provisions such as "misbehaviour" before the commencement of the proposed Act would be beyond the scope of the Judicial Council or the provision that "no such complaint shall be entertained and inquired into with respect to any act or conduct constituting misbehaviour which has taken place two years prior to the filing of complaint."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Probe panel waits in vain for representations
Decision soon on modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports
Open up judicial council: legal fraternity
Punjab should await court order: Soz
Be constructive in criticism, Balakrishnan tells media
Novartis: court poses queries on core grounds of challenge
No further cut in corporate taxes: Minister
I don't want to relocate: Balthazar
Trinamool MLAs won't get wages
Animal lovers decry move to kill stray dogs in Karnataka
Jharkhand police begin probe
Decision soon on CBI probe
Session may be adjourned today
Orders on Sanjay Dutt's plea reserved

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu