Law for Judicial Accountability desperately awaited

The Justice Dinakaran's saga and cash-at judge’s door scam conspicuously bring out stark inadequacies in the present legal regime to bring the errant judges of higher judiciary to justice. There is no legally binding mechanism to fix the accountability of a deviant judge other than the impeachment process which is highly technical, tardy and cumbersome. The defiant attitude of Justice Dinkaran in turning blind eyes to the Supreme Court collegium’s advice to go on leave vindicates the redundancy of much hyped ‘Restatement of Values of Judicial Life (Code of Conduct) 1999’. The host of Bills in a quick succession qua judicial accountability viz. Constitutional 98th Amendment Bill, 2003; Judges (Enquiry) Bill, 2005; Judges (Enquiry) Bill, 2006; Judges (Enquiry) Bill, 2008; The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2009 and now The Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010 which has been referred for deliberations before Group of Ministers shows the dithering and incoherence at the level of the government. All stakeholders are to realize that judicial accountability is an integral facet of judicial independence and latter precludes, however, neither disciplinary surveillance nor civil or criminal liability for abuse of power, because no immunity of function can be absolute.