Parliamentary panel to discuss judges’ conduct, post-retirement jobs

New Delhi: At a time two High Court judges are under the eye of controversies, a Parliamentary panel will deliberate on code of conduct and post-retirement assignments for judges in the higher judiciary later this month.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice headed by senior BJP MP Brij Lal has summoned the Secretary of Department of Justice on June 24 as part of discussions on judicial processes and their reforms.

The multi-party panel will hear the views of the Secretary on the Code of Conduct for the judges of higher judiciary and taking up post-retirement assignments by judges. In February 2024, the panel had recommended a fresh look at the issue of post-retirement jobs of judges.

The examination of the issue by the Parliamentary panel comes close on the heels of two High Court judges Justices Yashwant Varma and Shekhar Yadav facing trouble following allegations against them.

The government is planning to bring an impeachment motion against Justice Varma following the recovery of cash when he was Delhi High Court judge after a fire incident at his official residence. The Opposition has submitted impeachment notices in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha against Justice Yadav for alleged communal remarks but the presiding officers have not acted on it.

The panel had earlier examined the issue of 'Judicial Processes and their Reforms' and submitted a report in 2023. While the panel did not look into a Code of Conduct for judges then, it had a passing mention on post-retirement jobs for judges in the context of raising their retirement age.

It had then said that many stakeholders had raised objections to the post-retirement assignments given to judges and the Committee is of the view that with the increase in the age of retirement of judges, the practice of post-retirement assignments to judges of Supreme Court and High Courts in bodies/institutions financed from public exchequer may be reassessed to ensure their impartiality.

The panel said in its report tabled in Parliament on 7 August, 2023 said that longer tenures may also ensure the impartiality of judges as often raised criticism is that judges begin looking for post-retirement jobs in the last year of their service.

Increasing the age of retirement would not only help the judicial system but also the public at large, specifically the litigants before the Courts, it had said.

An Action Taken Report on the initial report tabled on 7 February, 2024 had suggested the entire gamut of issues related to such appointments of retired judges “may be comprehensively studied again and relooked” upon by the Ministry of Law and Justice.