Judge sex scandal: 3 CJs to probe

Chief Justice of India Justice G B Pattanaik has set up a three-member committee to look into the sex scandal allegedly involving three Karn...

Chief Justice of India Justice G B Pattanaik has set up a three-member committee to look into the sex scandal allegedly involving three Karnataka High Court judges.

Sources said the committee has three Chief Justices: Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice A R Lakshmannan, Madras High Court Chief Justice B Subhasham Reddy and Patna High Court Chief Justice Ravi Swaroop Dhawan.

All the three were in Delhi where on Saturday they met the three Karnataka High Court judges who had been summoned.

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Sources said the committee has three options. One, they can take an extreme step of recommending impeachment but this is generally taken in the rarest of rare cases. Only when there are severe indictments relating to ‘‘moral turpitude’’ can impeachment is considered. However, after the unsuccessful bid in the case of Justice K Ramaswamy, it is unlikely that a similar step will be taken against them.

Secondly, the committee can direct the Karnataka High Court not to give the judges an important assignment, thereby divesting them of their jobs. This action would be taken with an intention of forcing the three judges to quit on their own.

The third option, of transfer, is also fraught with problems given the protests in the Guwahati bar over the transfer of a judge named in the PPSC scam.

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