Decision on judicial standards bill deferred

The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 was discussed at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. But a decision on the matter was deferred, sources said.

Besides laying down a code to deal with cases of corruption against judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, the Bill also seeks to repeal the four decade-old Judges Enquiry Act, 1968 which deals with the process of impeachment of senior judges.

The Bill also has provision for allowing the common man to complain about the alleged misconduct of a judge. But the citizens will have to reveal the source of their information in complaints filed by them.

But a final decision on whether action should be taken against the erring judges will remain with the government.

The Bill, prepared by the Law Ministry, provides for a series of committees to probe the allegations against judges before an impeachment motion is introduced in either house of Parliament.

While there will be one Scrutiny Committee for the Supreme Court, the other will be for the 21 High Courts.

The bill proposes to set up a National Judicial Oversight Committee, likely to be headed by Vice-President Hamid Ansari in his capacity as the Chairman of Rajya Sabha with distinguished jurists as members that will receive the complaints against the sitting judges.

The bill also lays down certain guidelines or code of conducts for judges.