Significantly raising the bar of judicial accountability, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today debunked the existing system of self-regulation and warned that ‘‘any further delay’’ in dealing with the growing incidence of corruption among judges would threaten the very ‘‘independence’’ of the institution. Inaugurating the conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices—only the third such gathering ever—Singh also signalled a major departure from the NDA Government’s proposal of imposing accountability from outside through the so-called National Judicial Commission. ‘‘A mechanism of accountability, conceived and implemented by the judiciary itself, is the surest way to ensure judicial independence,’’ Singh said, urging the judges to do ‘‘some soul-searching’’ on how this could be done. ‘‘The judicial family must consider the ills that face our judicial system with concern and find quick solutions for it,’’ he said, adding that ‘‘any further delay in finding such solutions will only jeopardise the effectiveness of our judicial institutions.’’ Underlining the need to maintain the public confidence that judgments are rendered ‘‘without any extraneous considerations,’’ Singh said: ‘‘Accountability and transparency norms cannot, and should not, be imposed on the judiciary from outside.’’ Though ‘‘judicial accountability’’ was actually deleted from the agenda of the conference—as reported in The Indian Express today—the subject figured rather prominently as Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti declared 2005 as ‘‘the year of excellence in the judiciary’’ and vowed that ‘‘there will be no place for any corrupt or indolent in the system.’’ In what seemed to be a tacit reference to incidents like the recent strike by high court judges in Chandigarh, Justice Lahoti said ‘‘cracking the whip on those who by their conduct or behaviour do not deserve to be members of an ideal judiciary has already commenced.’’ But Justice Lahoti did not express any need for reforming the existing in-house procedure of judicial accountability. ‘‘Question marks have been placed on the credibility of the judiciary at times on account of some aberrations which,’’ the CJI asserted, ‘‘are not the product of the system but are individual in nature and are isolated cases.’’ Delivering his key-note address, Justice Lahoti said: ‘‘I am confident of developing a system in which the best of talent and men of integrity shall alone have a place.’’ The Prime Minister, in keeping with his reputation as a reformist, came up with an array of innovative ideas to improve the efficiency of the judiciary. • Specialised judges: ‘‘This is the age of specialisation. The need for this is how accepted internationally. Chief Justices are recognising this need already and any moves in the direction of promoting specialised judges should be welcomed.’’ • Reducing vacations: ‘‘A simple way of improving the productivity of the judicial system is by increasing the number of working days and cutting down on vacations. This is estimated to be equivalent to increasing the number of judges.’’ • Sharing of best practices: ‘‘Mechanisms could be designed whereby best practices in one court or by an individual judge are rapidly disseminated across the entire judicial system.’’ • Monitoring of individual performance: ‘‘Courts could develop collective mechanisms of review and monitoring so that performance of individual judges is monitored and causes of delay are addressed.’’ Briefing the media, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj said that some of the judicial participants had urged the Government to roll back the 20-year-old policy of appointing the Chief Justice of a high court from outside the state. ‘‘Though we heard them out, we made it clear that there was no question of changing the policy that was taken after much deliberation by Indira Gandhi’s Cabinet,’’ he said. Bhardwaj was cagey when asked about another sensitive item placed in the agenda of the conference by Chief Justices: their proposal that the salary of judges should be exempted from income tax. ‘‘We did not pass a resolution on any such issue,’’ the minister said, adding that judges already receive allowances that nobody else gets.
