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Journalism of Courage
Union Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily on Monday said he would introduce a Bill in the next session of Parliament in line with the UPA governments commitment to usher in judicial reforms and introduce transparency in the judiciary in the country.
We are working on a new draft Judges Inquiry Bill. It will be a new Bill and not merely a copy of the old one. We are taking care to include clauses that would ensure more accountability of judges of the Supreme Court as well as the High Courts apart from every aspect of good governance within the judiciary, he told The Indian Express in an interview.
The proposed Inquiry Bill will lay down procedures to take action against members of the higher judiciary for misconduct.
The present Judges Inquiry Act,1968,deals solely with impeachment procedures. It does not deal with other cases of complaints against judges, the Law Minister said.
Asked to elaborate,he said his ministry was carefully examining all aspects on the subject,including the report of the departmentally-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law,Justice and Personnel.
It will be a comprehensive piece of legislation that will be effective. I am sure it would be acceptable to all stake holders. But there is no intention to take on the judiciary. We will involve them judiciary too. After all,it will be of help to them too, he said.
Refusing to say anything on the ongoing controversy that erupted after a Karnataka High Court Judge questioned the power of the Chief Justice of India in speaking for all judges on the assets issue,Moily said,It is their judiciarys internal matter.He,however,added that CJI K G Balakrishnan knows how to run the administration of justice in the country. We dont want to tell him how to do it, he added.
Asked if he would introduce the Judges Assets and Liabilities Bill,2009 in the next Session the Law Minister deferred the introduction of the Bill in the recent Session of Parliament after many MPs cutting across party lines opposed the introduction of the Bill in its present form,Moily replied in the affirmative.
It is not as if I was forced to withdraw the Bill. I volunteered to defer its introduction. We are holding consultations with all stake-holders to evolve a consensus,he added.
Moily disclosed that the main focus of the forthcoming national consultation on judicial reforms would be the backlog of cases.
We want to identify the bottlenecks that lead to pendency of cases and evolve a strategy to deal with the problem, he said.
Meanwhile,CJI Balakrishnan on Monday once again asserted that he had the right to speak on behalf of judges.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a function here,Balakrishnan said the remarks of Karnataka High Court Judge D V Shylendra Kumar had not caused embarrassment to the judiciary. How can the remarks of a single judge cause embarrassment. It judiciary is a big institution, he said.
However,a day after dubbing Justice Kumar publicity-crazy,the CJI said he had merely made some general comments about judges.
