Following in the Rajya Sabha?s footsteps, if the Lok Sabha also passes the motion against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court by a two-thirds majority (with half the total membership), then India will see its first-ever impeachment of a judge. It is important to note that parliamentarians of all hues (barring the BSP) spoke in unison in the Rajya Sabha when they rebutted Justice Sen?s defence that he was just being made into a scapegoat as misleading, given that the investigation committee constituted as per the provisions of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968, has found him guilty of retaining client monies that he received as an advocate-receiver and holding on to them even after becoming a high court judge. As this ?misbehaviour? took place back in 1993, the real scandal is that the gentleman was elevated as a judge in 2003 although he had kept withdrawing money that was never his to spend. As Arun Jaitley said, cheques don?t lie. And when Jaitley talked about the anomaly of ?judges alone appointing judges? while judicial overreach was threatening the ?lakshman rekha? between the executive and the judiciary, even Manmohan Singh was seen to thump out an applause. As examples of recent pronouncements on policy decisions that ?do not fall within the judicial space?, Jaitley referred to the cases of Salwa Judum, a Pakistani prisoner and land acquisition. While we can debate whether or not judicial overreach is taking place in India today, what is indisputable is the need for a less time-consuming and circuitous mechanism for cleansing compromised judges from the system. Such a mechanism must hold to the jurisprudential principle that ?No one should be a judge in their own cause.? We have seen in the case of PD Dinakaran that he was made the chief justice of the Sikkim High Court after a flurry of corruption and land-grab charges engulfed him in Karnataka. The current practice of appointments to the higher judiciary resting with just a collegium of judges clearly needs an overhaul. An alternative, speedier and more transparent system has been mooted in the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010. This must be passed immediately, because India cannot afford to lose faith in its judiciary.
The system of appointing judges also needs urgent reforms. There seems to be growing support for a National Judicial Commission in this regard, wherein the collegium of judges would see members from the executive and from prominent citizenry added to its decision-making ranks. This too seems rational and advisable.
