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.
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“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.
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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.”