Way Forward

♤ Bringing a new Judicial Standards and Accountability bill along the lines of Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill 2010 (which lapsed) to establish a set of legally enforceable standards to uphold the dignity of superior judiciary and establish a new

architecture to process the public complaints leveled against the judges.

♤ Authority outside judiciary to take disciplinary actions: This is one solution being discussed. However, it has several shortcomings:

 potential threat to judicial independence

o may inject fear in judges while taking any decision that it may annoy powers as seen during the time of emergency

 design of constitution has been to ensure absolute judicial independence, with no scope for Parliament or the executive interference in judicial conduct or decisions.

♤ Appointment: the collegium should take adequate safeguards so that only judges of high caliber and impeccable integrity are appointed to the higher courts. This requires infusion of greater transparency in the selection of judges.

♤ Greater Internal regulation: disciplinary actions should be taken promptly at the very first instance of misconduct. For this, a National Judicial Oversight Committee should be created by the Parliament which shall develop its own procedures to scrutinize the complaints and investigation. The composition of such committee should not affect judicial independence.

8.4.1. Court’s reluctance to come under Right to Information (RTI)