The year judiciary came under scanner

Impeachment proceedings against two judges, strong indictment of Allahabad high court judges by the supreme court, and to top it all, the demand for resignation of former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan as chairman, National Human Rights Commission, have put a blot on the higher judiciary.

And not to speak of several other issues that came to grip the Indian judiciary like at no time before.

As charges of corruption in judiciary was on the increase, two cases of impeachment proceedings came up before parliament — that of the Sikkim high court chief justice P D Dinakaran and Calcutta HC judge, Justice Soumitra Sen. Both are facing cases of corruption against them. Justice Dinakaran, who was CJ of Karnataka HC, was selected by the collegium of the apex court as a judge at the top court but revelations by a group of senior advocates about his land deals halted his elevation. Rather, it ended up in impeachment proceedings in parliament.

Misappropriation

As for Justice Sen, he faces allegation of misappropriation of Rs 33 lakh of public funds by him in 1984. Justice Sen is alleged to have misused this amount by transferring it to his bank account when he was appointed receiver of the amount collected from sales during a dispute between two firms. He was a lawyer then.

Former law minister Shanti Bhushan created a sensation in the supreme court in September when he told the court that eight of the 16 former CJIs were corrupt and even named them in a sealed cover which he submitted to the court. He said of the 16 on his list, “six were definitely honest and about the remaining two, a definite opinion cannot be expressed whether they were honest or corrupt.”

Bhushan was joined by 25 citizens, including many eminent persons who dared the SC to initiate contempt proceedings against them. These two events too are unprecedented in the history of Indian judiciary.

Commenting on these developments, advocate Mohan Katarki told Deccan Herald: “The issues bothering judiciary in the last few years, especially this year, can be called an era of suspicion. This shows that something has to be done to set right the system. Great deal of introspection is required. There is no doubt that the quality in higher judiciary has come down. If you have 30 judges in a HC, it is difficult to monitor. In Allahabad HC there are 150 judges...”

Proactive

As the image of the judiciary came under a cloud because of these developments, the apex court chipped in to restore some, especially in the 2G scam and the CVC (chief vigilance commissioner) cases. The court went hammer and tongs at the then telecom minister A Raja and the Union government for the Rs 1.76 lakh crore scandal while in the CVC case, it wondered how a person (P J Thomas) facing charges of corruption in a state can be appointed to preside over to decide corrupt activities of others.

In a far-reaching verdict, the apex court said in February that high courts too can direct the CBI to take up cases for investigation. So far, this authority existed only with the apex court.

The ‘uncle judge’ syndrome was back in news as the apex court, in stinging remarks, said ‘there is something rotten’ in the Allahabad HC. The Allahabad court was up in arms against the SC remarks but could not do much as the top court did not budge.

The year ended with another blot on judiciary — eminent legal mind, former SC judge V R Krishna Iyer demanded the resignation of NHRC chairman Balakrishnan as reports surfaced that his son-in-law had amassed disproportionate wealth in the last few years. Justice Balakrishnan has so far not reacted to these reports.