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Journalism of Courage
The UPA Government is considering a proposal to enhance the security cover provided to top judicial brass in the country.
According to sources, this follows a recent meeting which Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan had with National Security Advisor M K Narayanan in which he made a case for reviewing the current security cover available to the judges in the higher judiciary.
At the meeting specially called for the purpose last week, Justice Balakrishnan is learnt to have conveyed his reservations about what he feels is an ‘inadequate’ security cover for the sitting judges, including the chief justices of various high courts.
“Generally, the judges have two security personnel: a PSO and an armed guard. The CJI just wanted to apprise the Government of the present security cover offered to the judges and, if possible, re-consider it in view of the present situation,” said a senior official of the apex court, not revealing whether there was any threat to any of the sitting judges.
The Delhi Police, entrusted with the task of providing security cover to the judges, however, maintained that there was no specified category — X, Y, Z or Z+ — under which judges were provided security. “It has to be decided on a case-to-case basis,” said an officer.
For instance, the officer said, Justice S N Dhingra of the Delhi High Court was provided with Z+ security cover, as in the capacity of the special POTA judge in 2002, he had decided the Parliament attack case, and there was a high security threat to him.
The meeting with the NSA was also attended by few other senior judges of the apex court.
