Ushering in more transparency, the Supreme Court has made public the in-house procedure to deal with complaints of misconduct or impropriety against the higher judiciary almost 15 years after it was adopted.
The trigger for this move came in a judgment delivered by a Bench of Justices J.S. Khehar and Arun Mishra in December on a sexual harassment complaint filed by a former additional district judge in Gwalior against a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge.
Ordering fresh inquiry into the allegations against the High Court judge, the Bench directed the Supreme Court Registry to upload the in-house procedure on the court’s official website for public consumption.
“In view of the importance of the in-house procedure, it is essential to bring it into public domain,” Justice Khehar observed in the 71-page judgment.
A panel of judges framed and submitted the procedure in a report on October 31, 1997. This procedure was adopted with certain amendments at a Full Court meeting of the Supreme Court on December 15, 1999.
“The committee feels that the in-house procedure will allay misgivings in certain quarters that members of the higher judiciary are not accountable for their conduct. At the same time, it will also serve as a safeguard for the members of the higher judiciary from being maligned or being subjected to vilification by false or frivolous complaints,” the report said.
The procedure details the various steps to be taken by the judiciary in case of receiving a complaint. It delves into the requirement for a “deeper probe,” if found necessary, into allegations against a judge. It also provides for the setting up of a committee of three judges to conduct the fact-finding inquiry.
One of the clauses says that if the committee finds substance in the allegations of misconduct against a particular judge which calls for his removal, the Chief Justice of India should advise the judge to “resign his office or seek voluntary retirement.”
