New Delhi: The Bill namely the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill seeking to provide for dealing with the Complaints against the Judges, has been deferred by the Government.
It is stated by Mr. Sadananda Gowda, the Law Minister, that there is a need for ‘further consultation with various stake-holders’ of the said proposal seeking a change in the present System of Probing Complaints against the Judges of honourable Higher Judiciaries like Supreme Court and High Courts relating to their misbehaviour and incapacity. The said fact is being stated by Mr. Gowda in Written reply at Lok Sabha on the last day of April month i.e. on this Thursday.
In the month of March, 2012, the said UPA Government’s introduced, ‘the Judicial Standards and Accountability, Bill’ was passed by Lok Sabha, however, after the dissolution of 15th Lock Sabha, the present Bill was lapsed.
Moreover, considering the protests of Judiciary and Jurists against certain provisions contained under the Bill, which were questioned by them, the Rajya Sabha had amended the said.
It could be seen with the lapsed bill that the same was making provisions to provide for a comprehensive Mechanism to handle the Citizen’s complaints against the misbehaviour and incapacity of the Judges of the Higher Judiciary including honourable Apex Court and High Courts.
The said Bill also was making provisions for initiating actions against those Judges who found guilty after prescribed investigations. Further, the Judicial Standards were also laid down in the said Bill for making them incumbent on the Judges for declaring their assets and liabilities.
The Present mechanism dealing with the Complaints against the Judges is ‘In- house Mechanism’ where honourable Chief Justice of India- CJI is authorized to dealt with the complaints against the Judges’ Conduct of the honourable Apex Court and for dealing with the complaints against the Judges of honourable High Court, the Chief Justices of High Courts concerned are authorized.
It was seen that the honourable Apex Court in the first month of this year had introduced on its website, the ‘In-House Procedure’ to deal with the Complaints made against the Judges of the Apex Court and High Courts.
by Faim Khalilkhan Pathan.
