JUDGES’ CODE OF CONDUCT

: “Is the Supreme Court protecting corrupt judges?” said former law minister and senior counsel Shanti Bhushan to an apex court Bench. The query and the subsequent exchange of words saw the lead judge on the Bench, Justice B N Aggarwal, recusing himself from hearing the controversial PF scam case allegedly involving lower and higher judiciary. The heated debate between the Bench and the Bar, if put in a nutshell, was about the need for the right mechanism to protect honest judges, which would, at the same time, ensure accountability in the judiciary. One such proposal awaiting clearance from the Parliament is the Judicial Inquiry Bill that calls for an in-house panel called the National Judicial Council to inquire exclusively into “allegations of misbehaviour or incapacity of a judge in the Supreme Court or the High Court”.

•What amounts to “misbehaviour” for a judge?

Besides obvious reasons like corruption, even willful disinterest towards performance of duties amounts to “misbehaviour”. Other reasons include persistent conduct which brings “dishonour or disrepute” to the judicial community, commission of an offence involving moral turpitude, willful abuse of judicial office and lack of integrity.

•What is the ideal conduct for a serving judge?

A Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court and high court judges called ‘Re-instatement of Values in Judicial Life’, was resolved in the chief justices’ conference of 1999. The 15-point code primarily recommends a serving judge to maintain an air of “aloofness” in his official and personal life. It says:

1. A judge should not contest election to any office of a club, society or other association.

2. He should not hold such elective office except in a society or association connected with the law.

3. Close association of a judge with individual members of the Bar, particularly those who practice in the same court, must be eschewed.

4. A judge should not permit any member of his immediate family, such as spouse, son, daughter, son-in-law or any other close relative, if he or she is a member of the Bar, to appear before him or even be associated in any manner with a case to be dealt by him.

5. A member of a judge’s family, if he or she is a member of the Bar, should not be permitted to use the residence in which the judge actually resides.

6. A judge should practice a degree of aloofness consistent with the dignity of his office.

7....

Ads By Google

Message*	Maximum characters allowed

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.