JOIN USThe unprecedentedly harsh comments of a supreme court bench on the Allahabad high court has again drawn attention to corruption and misconduct among judges of the higher judiciary. Higher courts have criticised lower courts in the past for their judicial failings and lapses but it is perhaps for the first time that the supreme court has criticised a high court for the personal misdemeanor of judges in such strong language. The court said that there were ‘uncle judges’ (judges whose relatives practice as lawyers in the same court) in the high court and some of the judgments were clearly made on extraneous considerations. Saying that something is rotten in the court, alluding to a line in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the court wanted a spring-cleaning of the court with the transfer of corrupt judges from there.
The ‘uncle judge’ phenomenon is prevalent not only in the Allahabad high court but elsewhere also. When the court observed that sons or relatives of judges become multi-millionaires within a few years of starting practice, it meant that they made use of their proximity to judges to secure favourable judgments. The judges who helped their relatives to win cases are clearly guilty of nepotism and corruption. When a case is decided not on its merit, but on the basis of the lawyer’s relationship with the judge, justice takes a knock. It was to avoid this that the Law Commission had recommended that judges should not be posted in courts where their relatives practised as lawyers. The recommendation is not being followed. But the problem is within the power of chief justices to resolve. The supreme court bench has told the Allahabad high court chief justice to transfer the ‘incorrigible’ judges out of the court.
Unfortunately judges who have tasted the fruits of corruption in one court will look for them in other courts also. But transfers can be used as a safeguard against blatant resort to favouritism, and misdemeanors of this kind can be minimised. As some recent developments concerning the judiciary have shown, the supreme court judges’ comments also point to failure of the system to select the right persons for judicial positions. The same day that the judges made the comments, the chief justice of India, Justice S H Kapadia, said he would ensure that in the next two years good judges will be appointed in the higher courts. He should keep his promise.