The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Law sought for scrutiny of public conduct of judges

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 29, 2007
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Law sought for scrutiny of public conduct of judges

Staff Reporter

Ramesh Kumar for evaluation of special prosecutors’ performance

BANGALORE: Former Speaker Ramesh Kumar on Friday demanded that a law be enacted to subject the public conduct of judges of lower courts to scrutiny by the legislature in view of the increasing number of pending cases and charges against them.

Participating in a debate on demands for grants in the Legislative Assembly, he reminded the House that all sections of people were subject to scrutiny of one kind or the other. But the public conduct of members of the judiciary had remained out of any such mechanism.

If this was allowed to continue, they would become a “separate class”. The legislature was competent to deliberate on the judiciary’s conduct, he said.

Expressing concern over the increasing number of pending cases, particularly in lower courts, Mr. Ramesh Kumar said that one of the reasons for this was corruption. The judiciary had been honoured by not including it in the budget. Salaries, allowances and perks were charged. But should they not respond to the honour bestowed upon them by society? he asked.

Mr. Ramesh Kumar urged the Law Department to evaluate the performance of special prosecutors as most of them were seeking adjournments only for drawing fee. Some of them had established a nexus, he claimed. The police were deliberately not serving non-bailable warrants on witnesses and even officers of the rank of Inspector General of Police were silent on it, he alleged.

Officials in the Director of Prosecutions office should be pulled up for the lapses at the district level, he said. The Congress leader received support from J.C. Madhuswamy (Janata Dal United) and B. Shivaram when he criticised the Lokayukta for serving notices on 265 legislators for not providing proper information on their assets. The Lokayukta, they said, should not stretch his hands too much and humiliate the legislators in the eyes of the public.

Mr. Madhuswamy said such information was available publicly and could be collected easily without asking the legislators to furnish it.

Even Speaker Krishna supported him when he criticised top officers for lacking integrity. Mr. Ramesh Kumar said statutory committees should be allowed to tour the country.

Transport Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy promised the member that he would stop misuse of permit by contract carriage operators who were allegedly running schedules on national highways.

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

Karnataka