Late or dozing in court? Judges may be in dock

Schoolchildren who resent being penalised for coming in late
or for falling asleep in the class can take heart. Hopefully, from the next
year, even the Supreme Court and High Court judges will be in serious trouble if
they come late to court or nod off during arguments. Indeed, they can face
inquiry and risk incurring punishment stretching from censure to removal.

These are among the high standards and accountability
criteria proposed for judges of the higher judiciary in the new Judicial
Standards and Accountability Bill, 2009, which, after undergoing 18 drafts, is
ready to go before the cabinet in a day or two, law ministry sources told TOI.
Courts have not been immune to the problem of lack of punctuality, seen by many
as a national trait because of its spread across regions, demographics and
institutions. The late “latifs” among SC and HC judges have so far got away
because of the absence of any mechanism to chastise these holders of
constitutional posts. The government now seems keen to wean them off their
fondness for Indian Standard Time — a euphemism used to describe the cultural
problem that sees punctuality as alien to desi ethos. 5-yr jail is likely for
bid to frame judge

The new Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2009, a
brainchild of the law minister Veerappa Moily, and drafted and re-drafted with
assistance from the Attorney General G E Vahanvati and Solicitor General Gopal
Subramaniam, has a provision that will surely make the judges of the higher
judiciary sit up and take notice—”punctuality and devotion towards duty’’.

Anyone who finds a judge not punctual or not devoted to duty,
dozing off once too often during hearings or being habitually late in delivering
judgments, could lodge a complaint against that judge with an Oversight
Committee, specifically provided to receive such complaints.

The committee would thoroughly scrutinise the complaint and
its veracity. If the complaint was found to be false, the complainant would be
proceeded against and could end up behind bars for up to five years.

Apart from making voluntary asset declaration by judges,
according to the apex judiciary’s resolution of May 7, 1997 a statutory
requirement, the bill gives a wider meaning to assets and liabilities.

(Source: Internet & Media Reports, dated 12.01.2010)

(Note: What about similar accountability bill for our
law makers who are passing legislation without debate and discussion in the
Parliament? Why are they not made accountable?)