Judgement Day

Haunted by scams, absolute lack of transparency and accountability, and a pronounced anti-poor stance, it's time to open the tightly shut windows of the higher judiciary in India
Prashant Bhushan Delhi

Over the last three years, the Campaign for Judicial Accountability has made giant strides in bringing judicial accountability on the national agenda, and in the media. This has been so on account of several highly publicised scandals which surfaced in the judiciary which we highlighted; this included the lack of any credible mechanism to bring to book judges committing judicial misconduct, and the lack of any transparent and rational system for appointing judges.

The 'Ghaziabad Provident Fund Scam' surfaced almost two years ago when the vigilance judge of the Ghaziabad District Court reported to the high court about how more than Rs 7 crore had been siphoned out of the Ghaziabad treasury by successive district judges of Ghaziabad with the help of an administrative officer of the court, in the guise of provident fund advances to class 3 and 4 employees. The administrative officer of the Ghaziabad Court, Ashutosh Asthana, made a confessional statement to the court that he had done this at the behest of successive judges of the district court and that much of this money had been used for building the houses of the district judges, paying for various items of furniture etc - for them - and for several high court judges as well as a Supreme Court judge.

Initially, the Ghaziabad police was told by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) that they could not directly interrogate high court judges and that they must send only written questions which must be sent through the CJI. Thereafter, the Ghaziabad police expressed helplessness in investigating this case involving a Supreme Court judge, several high court and district court judges. On this, the investigation was transferred to the CBI. Indeed, there is still no information about the progress made by the CBI in the investigation.

The fact is that while several minor employees have been chargesheeted, no judge has been chargesheeted as yet. Besides, Ashutosh Asthana died in jail in highly mysterious circumstances which his family believes is murder.

The Ghaziabad provident fund scam received a lot of publicity. This has strengthened the feeling about rampant corruption in the judiciary and the need to remove the unnecessary restrictions imposed by the Supreme Court through the Veeraswami judgment restraining the police from investigating criminal offences by judges without the prior written permission of the CJI. This permission has almost never been given by the Chief Justice. He is recently reported to have refused permission to the CBI to prosecute Justice Nirmal Yadav of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh by saying that he cannot allow the spectacle of a high court judge being arraigned before a magistrate.

This scandal, known as the 'cash at judges door scandal' arose when a packet containing Rs 15 lakh was delivered by a lawyer's clerk to the security guard of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of Punjab and High Court. The packet was opened by the guard in the presence of the judge in her living room where reportedly some other judges of that court and a judge of the Supreme Court were also present. The matter was reported to the police and soon the lawyer and his clerk were arrested. During preliminary investigation it transpired that the money was sent by a Delhi hotelier called Ravinder Singh, and was basically meant for another judge in the same court by the name of Nirmal Yadav, but was mistakenly delivered to Nirmaljit Kaur. The investigation was eventually handed over to the CBI.