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there. As the law minis¬ter rightly points out, "For the last few years, there have been far too many ac¬cusations against the judiciary:'
Initial efforts towards introducing new measures, were made by the NDA gov¬ernment in 2003. The new Bill that will replace the existing Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, recommends setting up a new body known as National Judicial Council (N/C). In addition to looking into matters of , misbehaviour' and 'misconduct' by the judges, the NJC would also deal with the regular complaints against the judges. The primary objective of the Bill is to make the system more transparent and in tune with the requirements of the Indian Democracy. There is no gain reiterating the fact that this step is welcomed by the powers to stem the downward slide of Indian judiciary, and will prevent some black sheep in the judiciary from twisting the system for their personal aggran¬dizement.
This is not the
first time that such a step has been initiated. In the past, the apex court had tried to control the work¬ing of judges by forming in-house proce¬dure. As per this, in-house committees were formed which looked after the com¬plaints against the judges. But without a proper governing body, all that was achieved was merely issuing notices to the accused judges. Besides, concrete ac¬tion was taken only after a certain number of accusations had been registered against a particular judge. It is for this reason that till date no judge has been removed from his post based on the complaint lodged by a citizen.
With cases like these, who needs ...
The number of pending cases in India
|
Year
|
Supreme Court
|
High Court
|
| 2001 |
22,270 |
3,424,100 |
| 2002
|
24,335 |
3,824,000 |
| 2003 |
26,750 |
3,368,226 |
|
2004
|
30,151 |
3,269,224 |
The new Bill endeavours to plug all such loopholes that have come up in the past. Commenting on the new Bill, Has¬an Anzar, a lawyer says, "This bill will help in softening the rude attitude and behaviour of some judges:' Sounding a cautionary note, Anzar further adds, "It may happen that the executives will get the stronghold in the long run if the Bill is not implemented properly." While there's no doubt that the new Bill would bring about accountability in the system, the same can be also misused by politi¬cians or even by individuals for self inter¬est and to malign the linage of an impar¬tial and honest judge, restraining the freedom of the courts (probability of which is higher!). This situation may also lead to "heavy price being paid in terms of compromising the judicial independ¬ence;' comments Justice R. C. Lahoti.
There have been repeated instances in recent times of clashes between the Judi¬ciary and the Executive, and between the Judiciary and the Legislature. The new judicial accountability Bill must not fur¬ther trigger the conflict between the three pillars of the modern Indian democracy. Or if that were to happen, the nation state will suffer ... !
Edit bureau: Niharika Patra
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