SO PROTECTED THAT THE SC JUDGE CAN DO ANY THING

Recent developments and statements by CJI confronted me with an issue. What in a democracy if people feel the Judiciary is not doing its job or exceeding its limits or may be a Judge is corrupt.

Interestingly, a Supreme Court judge as well as a high court judge, can be removed from office only by impeachment (Article 56) through a Parliamentary procedure laid down in Article 61.We thus have the situation that in respect of removal from office through impeachment, the Supreme Court judge is not only at par with the President of India but even higher when it is considered that the judge is protected even from violation of a constitutional provision or of constitutional convention.

An eminent Jurist, has advocated that India should enact a law on the lines of the one made by the USA in 1980 whereby a judicial body is empowered to take such action against a federal judge 'as is appropriate, short of removal.' Such a law, Nariman believes, 'would be appropriate to ride ourselves of the few 'black sheep,' and yet maintain and preserve the judicial independence of the higher judiciary guaranteed by our Constitution.'

Do we wish to have a transperent Judiciary or a dictorial Judiciary is a question which haunts me and must be most seriously confronted by our people and our Parliament.

We do not want a judiciary which will block our Right to Information, or who will take on the hearing and then say to avoid confrontation I step down from the seat. We do not want a Dinkaran episode or a Judge making U-Turn on his statement against a cabinet minister...We do not want even a Judge who is accused of corruption to even think of the Supreme Court elevation and also do not want reinstatement of judge accused of Corruption... We do not want a judiciary which will block an Advocates right to address the Supreme Court and if he stands outside in que to take a pass, then he will not be able to give Justice to the brief he has. It is like creating monopoly of a few Supreme Court Bar Members... We do not want a judiciary which is media savvy and want one who will avoid giving interviews to media... We do not want a judiciary which spends more time on other works then in giving Justice..

We want a Judiciary which is passionate about giving Justice and has the guts to step down and resign whenever accused of anything.. The Highest Court must have highest morality and highest degree of sensivity to Justice...

SIDDHARTH MURARKA