Govt elbows its way into committee to watch judges-5/10/10

Govt elbows its way into committee to watch judges-5/10/10

To give the government a foothold in what has so far been the exclusive preserve of the judiciary, it has been proposed to include the Attorney General in the five-member Oversight Committee to decide on cases of misconduct against the higher judiciary. The committee, headed by a former Supreme Court Chief Justice and including the AG as a member, has been proposed in the redrafted Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill that will be come up for approval in the Cabinet tomorrow.



The inclusion of the AG in the Oversight Committee is significant, sources pointed out, because it clearly indicates the induction of a government representative into the domain of what so far has been the judiciary’s preserve.



The other members proposed in the oversight committee, according to the draft Bill that was cleared by a Group of Ministers headed by Sharad Pawar, include a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, a High Court Chief Justice and an eminent person to be appointed by the President