- Only a handful of judges face corruption charges: Chief Justice
by : Indo Asian News Service
Date : Sun, 04 Feb 2007 09:13:01 GMT
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New Delhi, Feb 4 The new Chief Justice of India (CJI) K.G. Balakrishnan says that 'only a handful of judges' face corruption charges and he disapproves of the inclusion of a non-judiciary person in a monitoring panel for judges, although he supports a move to make judges accountable.'Against only a handful of judges are there allegations,' Balakrishnan told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's 'Devil's Advocate' when asked how many judges faced allegations of corruption.Former chief justice S.P. Bharucha had said that perhaps 20 percent of judges were corrupt and surveys by Transparency International indicated that 63 percent of India perceives the judiciary as corrupt.The chief justice welcomed the government's move to form a National Judicial Council to monitor judges in order to provide transparency.'I would welcome a better mechanism for finding out the corrupt judges or to remove corruption. What novel things (are devised) I would certainly welcome... There are some allegations and its better there should be some mechanism to find out whether anything could be done in this regard.'But he said he did not appreciate involving people other than judges in the council. 'It's a question of independence of the judiciary. If any other person conducts such an enquiry about any judge it will cause serious encroachment into the independence of the judiciary.'I personally believe if any one else enquires into the allegations against the judges and imposes punishment I don't think any self-respecting judge would like it,' he said in the interview, scheduled to be aired on CNN-IBN channel at 8.30 p.m. Sunday and at 10.30 p.m. in CNBC channel.Justice Balakrishnan said he personally had no problem in making himself accountable to the council but not the office of the Chief Justice.'Personally I don't mind. I'm the chief justice but I don't mind my accountability being examined, my actions being scrutinised by any committee consisting of judges. I have absolutely no objection.'But I say in the case of the Chief Justice of India (what will) anyone else outside India think if the chief justice is exposed to such an enquiry? (Anyway) the chief justice is not above law. Impeachment and all the other provisions are still there,' he said.The CJI, however, assured that he would 'diligently enquire' into the allegations against fellow judges.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service