Judges show the way

Experience has shown that self-reform is the most effective and sustainable form of reform. Therefore, the resolve of the chief justices o...

Experience has shown that self-reform is the most effective and sustainable form of reform. Therefore, the resolve of the chief justices of the country8217;s high courts to abide by their own code of conduct has not just to be welcomed, it has to be emulated. There cannot be a more apt way to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court of India than to adopt a measure designed to make the judiciary both more credible as an institution and more accountable to the people of this country. It has been two years since the Code, known as The Restatement of Va-lues in Judicial Life, was framed, and many within the judicial fraternity had expressed their impatience over the delay in implementing it.

The subtle face-off between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajapyee and Chief Justice A.S. Anand during the anniversary celebrations of the Supreme Court recently seems to have expedited the process. While Vajpayee had suggested the setting up of a Nat-ional Judicial Commission to come up with reform measures for thejudiciary, this newspaper had argued that such a move would only create a girdlock between the executive and the judiciary and it would be far better for the judiciary to set its house in order of its own volition. That is just what it now proposes to do.

The new fifteen-point code of ethics is a fairly comprehensive one, and includes within its ambit both personal and professional behaviour. While judges will now be required to declare assets not just of themselves but that of their wives and dependents, they are also enjoined not to preside ov-er a case involving people closely connected with them. The seriousness with which this has been entered into is underlined by the fact that a judicial committee will now draft an in-house procedure for taking suitable action against violators. That this will be an in-house procedure is important. Once again the emphasis here is on self-reform, no external agency is to be involved in this process of correction and thus compromise the independence of thejudiciary.

It is fitting that a decade which began with a move to impeach a Supreme Court judge, Justice V. Ramaswami, should end with this serious effort to ensure judicial integrity. Justice Ramasw-ami had through his conduct embarrassed the judiciary as no other. His career as a judge began on a particularly unsavoury note when he was appointed on the recommendation of a chief justice, who happened to be his father-in-law. But it was during his tenure as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court that proved the most embarrassing Justice Ramaswami evidently thought nothing of using public funds to meet personal expenses and misusing official facilities in the most blatant fashion. While he escaped impeachment thanks to timely political support, his conduct while in office served as a telling example of how a judge should not behave.

But it is not just judges who must observe circumspection in this regard. After all, each of the pillars that uphold democracy in this country, wh-ether it isthe executive, the legislature or the ju- diciary, has to abide by the same principles.