UPA wanting a committed Judiciary

Frankly admitting that sometimes judicial overreach disturbed the balance between three branches of state, Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia today cautioned the Government against tinkering with the independence of judiciary.

"The government may make law for making judges accountable. We are not afraid of that. But it should not tinker with the very constitutional principle of judicial independence," he said.

Speaking on the occasion of Independence Day celebrations in the Supreme Court, he urged the Government while bringing law, it should not lose sight of the concept of judicial independence.

Justice Kapadia was apparently referring to the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill which had already been passed by Lok Sabha and is pending in Rajya Sabha.

A controversial clause in the Bill states: "No judge shall make unwarranted comments against the conduct of any constitutional or statutory institution or officials at the time of hearing matters in open courts during the course of hearing matters."

The bill allows the citizens to complain against corrupt judges, but has been facing criticism for this provision which jurists says would "virtually gag" the judges in open courts.

The Chief Justice said that the government must take the opinion of various jurists and take into account various developments around the world before making law.

"We need to make a detailed study before we tinker with the Constitution," he said while emphasising that any disturbance to balance of power among legislative, executive and judiciary would "damage the Constitution for all time to come.

The practice of wanting a committed Judiciary started with Indira Gandhi after her election was set aside and some of her decisions like Privy purse and nationalization of banks was questioned by the judiciary.

The judiciary was allowed to breathe more freely during the Janata Dal and NDA regimes. Now, once again, the judiciary actively pulling up the government on the various scams has again made the UPA worried and are again thinking of clipping the wings of the judiciary.

The government should take note from what is happening in Pakistan where government has come to a standstill because ot stand-off between the government and the judiciary. Here again because of corruption of Zardari