Retd judges say clean-up needed-11/12/10

Retd judges say clean-up needed

Retired judges of the Allahabad High Court believe that the High Court — whose application for expunction of remarks made by a Supreme Court Bench of Justices Mar-kandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Mishra was rejected on Friday — should put its own house in order because the apex court had raised very important issues.

Prem Prakash Gupta, a retired judge, said: “The whole episode is most unfortunate and very damaging for our democratic polity. The SC had raised a very important issue and, instead of cribbing, we should ponder and find ways and means to set our house in order”.

Girdhar Malviya, another judge, said the “general, sweeping remarks” by the Supreme Court had “hurt the image and dignity of the Allahabad High Court” and sympathised with the agony of the judges who felt hurt. But “ek machhli saare talab ko ganda karti hai. The rotten fish should be identified and dealt with.”

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Haider Abbas, a third, wondered “why the Allahabad High Court opted to file an application before the Supreme Court” at all. What the apex court had stated was correct, he said.

Former Chief Justice H N Seth said: “Everybody knows the situation in the Allahabad High Court. Obviously those judges will feel hurt against whom the Supreme Court has made the adverse comments.”

In a judgment on November 26, the Supreme Court had stated that “something is rotten in the Allahabad High Court” and come down heavily on the “uncle judge syndrome”, characterised by relatives of judges influencing the course of justice. It had also said that it was getting complaints against certain judges.

The High Court had moved an application, seeking to expunge these observations. The application, which the Supreme Court rejected on Friday, said the order will make it difficult for judges to function and that it was a blot on the judiciary in UP.

Endorsing the SC observations, Abbas said: “There is no denying that corruption has permeated deep in the higher echelons of judiciary. In Allahabad as well as the Lucknow Bench of the HC, several relatives of judges have amassed wealth in a short period. The Supreme Court was perfectly justified in raising alarm.”

Malviya, however, said there were several other High Courts where “the situation is far more alarming, but the Supreme Court has never made any observation about those courts”. Nevertheless, “it would have been better had there been in-house correction,” he added.

Abbas emphasised the need to enforce accountability in the judiciary. The government, he said, should initiate the process of Constitutional amendment for setting up a judicial commission to supervise the appointment, transfer and removal of the judges. “The present mechanism of removal of judges through impeachment is highly cumbersome. The adoption of the motion of impeachment by Parliament with a two-thirds majority is never possible,” he added.

NC Rajvanshi, president of the Allahabad High Court Bar Association, noted that though the Supreme Court has dismissed the application of the High Court, it had stated that all judges were not corrupt. He said the bar association “stands by its resolution for action against corrupt judges”.

Last week, the association’s governing council had passed a resolution asking the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court to implement the Supreme Court order. In their judgment, Justices Katju and Mishra had said the High Court needs house cleaning and had asked the Chief Justice to take “some strong measures” including recommending transfer of the incorrigible judges.

They had made the observations while scrapping an order which a single-judge Bench of the Allahabad High Court had passed without territorial jurisdiction, asking the Bahraich-based Wakf Board to temporarily allot land to a circus. “The faith of the common man in the country is shaken to the core by such shocking and outrageous orders,” the judges had said.