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com/news/higher-judiciary-guilty-of-7-sins-exsc-judge-pulls-nopunches/874183/0 Indian Express 2011 11 11 Retrieved on 2012 02 01

Higher judiciary guilty of 7 sins: ex-SC judge pulls no punches

Maneesh Chhibber : New Delhi, Fri Nov 11 2011, 01:18 hrs

From hypocrisy and secrecy to arrogance, nepotism and plagiarism, all bedevil the higher judiciary, said former Supreme Court Justice Ruma Pal today in one of the most scathing indictments of the higher judiciary by one who has been part of it.

With sitting and retired judges of the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court listening, Pal, delivering the fifth V M Tarkunde Memorial Lecture on An Independent Judiciary, turned the searchlight inwards in a manner few of her contemporaries have done. Her key idea: independence of the judiciary and the judicial system ultimately depends on the personal integrity of each judge. With this as her backdrop, Pal went on to list the sins she said were undermining the judiciary and threatening its independence. The first sin, she said, was to brush things under the carpet, turning a Nelsonian eye to (the) injudicious conduct of a colleague. Ironically, she said, judges are fierce in using the independence of judiciary as a sword to take action in contempt against critics while also using the same as a shield to cover a multitude of sins, some venal and others not so venal. Many judges are aware of the injudicious conduct of a colleague, she said, but have either ignored it or refused to confront the judge concerned and have suppressed any public discussion on the issue often through the great silencer - the Law of Contempt, she said. The second sin: hypocrisy. A favourite rather pompous phrase in judgments is Be it ever so high, the law is above you or words to similar effect. And yet judges who enforce the law for others often break that law with impunity. This includes traffic regulations and any other regulation to which the ordinary citizens are subject.

Some, in fact, get offended if their cars are held up by the police while controlling the flow of traffic - the feeling of offence sometimes being translated into action by issuance of a rule of contempt against the hapless police constable all in the name of judicial independence, Pal said. The third sin, according to Pal, is secrecy. The normal response of courts to any enquiry on their functioning, she said, is to temporise, stone-wall and prevaricate. She pointed out that the process by which a judge is appointed to the High Court or elevated to the Supreme Court is one of the best kept secrets in the country. She said if independence of judiciary is taken to mean capable of thinking for oneself, then the fourth sin of the judiciary is plagiarism and prolixity. I club the two together because the root cause is often the same, namely the prolific and often unnecessary use of passages from textbooks and decision of other judges - without acknowledgment of in the first case and with acknowledgment in the latter. Many judgments are, in fact, mere compendia or digests of decisions of decisions on a particular issue with very little original reasoning in support of the conclusion, she said. Pal listed arrogance as the fifth sin, saying judges often misconstrue independence as judicial and administrative indiscipline. Both of these in fact stem from judicial arrogance as to ones intellectual ability and status. A judges status like other holders of public posts is derived from a office or the chair, she pointed out. Pal said that while the SC had laid down standards of judicial behaviour so that members of the subordinate judiciary are conscientious, studious, thorough, courteous, patient, punctual, just, impartial, fearless of public clamour, regardless of public praise, sadly some members of the higher judiciary exempt themselves from the need to comply with these standards. She also listed intellectual arrogance or intellectual dishonesty that is manifest when judges decide without being bound by principles of stare decisis or precedent as another problem area. The seventh and final sin, she said, is nepotism. What is required of a judge is a degree of aloofness and reclusiveness not only vis-a-vis litigants but also vis-a-vis lawyers. Litigants include the Executive, she said. Injudicious conduct includes

known examples such as judges using a guest house of a private company or a public sector undertaking for a holiday or accepting benefits like the allocation of land from the discretionary quota of a Chief Minister. I can only emphasise that again nothing destroys a judges credibility more than a perception that he/she decides according to closeness to one of the parties to the litigation or what has come to be described in the corridors of courts as face value.

Comments http://www.indianexpress.com/comments/higher-judiciary-guilty-of-7-sins-exsc-judge-pulls-nopunches/874183/# Tribunalisation

PM Reply

of

justice.By:

RAMA

KRISHNA

Wednesday

11

Jan

'12

19:42:40

| ForwardJustice Ruma Pal in her lecture discussed at length the tribunalisation of

justice. She rightly said that the faculty of adjudication should not be assigned to the Executive on the pretext of speedy disposal. Sampath Kumar vs Union of India reinforced the concept of tribunalisation of justice. These institutions were elevated to the status of The High Courts. I wish I could go thro' some of her ordersBy: P M Ravindran | Monday , 14 Nov '11 13:52:10
PM Reply

| ForwardI had logically concluded that judiciary was the worst of the 3 organs of our

Constitution because it is the best example of 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. And may be because of this absolute failure of the judiciary to deliver justice we also have the other organs competing neck to neck in cheating the public and looting public resources! Mr.By: Kanan V. Jaswal | Saturday , 12 Nov '11 21:32:22 PMReply | ForwardHas all this wisdom dawned upon Ruma Pal after retirement or she had raised all or some of these points while still in service? Whatever be the case, I can add at least one to the seven sins the members of the higher judiciary are guilty of according to Ruma Pal. That is, quite a few, if not all, of even the Supreme Court judges simply eat out of the hands of the top ten to fifteen lawyers. They venerate these lawyers so much that their judgments often just paraphrase the lawyers' arguments and views. What a piece of writing!By: LK Kandpal | Saturday , 12 Nov '11 7:57:42 AMReply | ForwardEarly in the morning, there cannot be a better food for thought than reading this article. She has analysed the scenario beautifully. What I was just wondering was whether there is any way out. May God bless our judiciary and may God bless India! Ceaser's wife should be above suspicionBy: Arvind Kumar | Friday , 11 Nov '11 12:15:29
PM Reply

| ForwardJustice Ruma Pal is absolutely right- unless we in the society will not be alert

all powers have a tendency to be abused and absolute powers leads to arrogance and more abuse. Unless we bring judiciary under and independent LokPal it may become worse. One judge who insisted that he will hear a contempt case despite Supreme Court ruling that the judge initiating contempt would not hear it was promoted to Supreme Court on Justice Balakrishnan, the then CJI, insistence . Judicial StoryBy: Krishna R. | Friday , 11 Nov '11 11:46:10 AMReply | ForwardJudicial Terrorism????? Independance of Judiciary in IndiaBy: M P Menon | Friday , 11 Nov '11 11:34:10
AM Reply

| ForwardWhy did it take so long for the Honble Madam to wash dirty linen of the

judiciary? What is her performance record? The Bar Council of India should as a matter of self regulation and establishing bench marks develop an indexing system of its judicial members and insist on certain weightage being given while considering their promotion As pointed by Ms Ruma Pal there should be transperancy in deciding promptions and a peer review system like that followed by Chartered Accountants be put in place. GautamBy: Gautam Shah | Friday , 11 Nov '11 10:43:29 AMReply | ForwardFor once a judge has guts to deliver a RIGHT judgement. Congrats and Thanks. the ugly truthBy: abcd | Friday , 11 Nov '11 10:28:40 AMReply | Forwardthe ugly truth.. JudiciaryBy: captainjohann | Friday , 11 Nov '11 10:05:18 AMReply | ForwardA brilliant analysis by the Ex Supreme court judge.But then her only failing is she is not now a member of the court or given any commission to head.I wish her views are transimitted in every law college of India.

http://www.indianexpress.com/comments/Higher%20judiciary%20guilty%20of%207%20sins:%20exSC%20judge%20pulls%20no%20punches/874183/2 dear editor, These gentemem should not remain slent when they visibly observe sins being cmmotted and expose all these after leving the bench. In this affair people loose their fith in the sytem but what is wrong must be exposed, waiting for retirement is not the right way. Be frank and honest and expose hese hen it takes place dated friday November 11th 2011 time 0930 Hrs ist Higher judiciary guilty of seven sins: ex-SC judge pulls no punchesBy: Harish Maru | Friday ,
11 Nov '11 9:24:50 AM Reply

| ForwardIndian Elite - be it political, business,judiciary,professionals,

bureaucrats,armed forces,police,bankers, seems to be very high on PERSONAL INTEGRITY BASED PUBLIC TRUST deficit. When the fence itself steals the fruits, what can be the alternative? Indian judicial system the biggest conspiracy against mankindBy: tj | Friday , 11 Nov '11
9:20:21 AM Reply

| ForwardCourts are dens of corruption.Epitomes of slavery.Indian judicial

system is the biggest conspiracy against mankind.Its nothing but chain of corruption.Judges are appointed and promoted on monetary and political considerations.The most corrupt and

incapable judges like Sumit Ghai, K.K. Goyal, Harbhajan Dass, Barjinder Pal Singh, Ranjeev Kumar, Anshul Berry, B.K. Mehta, Lalit Batra (former and present judges from Chandigarh Distrcit Courts) have been protected and promoted despite foolproof complaints of bias, corruption, delay and making a mockery of law.Punjab & Haryana High Court, Supreme Court and Law Ministry are protecting and rewarding corrupt judges.Indian judiciary is nothing but chain of corruption. Judge the judgesBy: Gulbagh Singh | Friday , 11 Nov '11 9:17:14 AMReply | ForwardWell done judge. We need more like you but you also kept silent when on the bench. Anyway, it is never late..... judiciaryBy: tanvi | Friday , 11 Nov '11 9:16:05 AMReply | Forwardhow true!!! finally there if one who has stood up and spoken. we knew this all along Seven Holy Sins...By: A. Patrawala | Friday , 11 Nov '11 9:04:51 AMReply | ForwardThe seven sins are visible in words and spirit in the Jakia jafri verdict by the Jain bench of the Apex Court. Highest judiciary is the sanctuary of some pachyderms... Higher judiciary guilty of seven sins: ex-SC judge pulls no punchesBy: sanjay | Friday , 11
Nov '11 8:50:22 AM Reply

| ForwardKudos to pointing out loop holes in the judiciary. It demands lot

of confidence to point mistakes in colleagues. I do hope that Chief Justice and law minister take it in positive spirit and plug all these mistakes by the judicial members. Please practice what is preachedBy: enjay14 | Friday ,
AM Reply 11 Nov '11 8:31:41

| ForwardHon'ble Supreme Court has time and again emphasised that lower courts

(HC and below) should give reason for their Order. But some of the very Supreme Court judgments contain just one word "Dismissed". In one case there were some very important questions of law, Hon'ble HC had dismissed the appeal due to delay of about 90 days. In the SLP this was clearly mentioned with further clear statement that there are important questions of law. But the SLP was rejected with just one word Judgment 'Dismissed'. It is understood that the Hon'ble SC is under tremendous pressure due to backlog, high profile cases where a battery of high and mighty Advocates present lengthy arguments, some of the PIL's that cause unnecessary expenditure of time, etc. that are not within the control of the Judges. But what is under their control is to assign reasons at least in a few sentences, to help appellant take it to larger Bench if necessary. If no reasons are indicated, such opportunity is lost for ever. 7 sinsBy: laxmiram | Friday , 11 Nov '11 7:41:50 AMReply | Forwarda hard hitting observation which has to be taken by everyone in the judiciary not as a speech value but seriously. It assumes added importance given the recent judicial activism, which has come as a great relief to common man. But at the same time the comments of revered and honored judges, sometimes, cross the line of aloofness, which become a fodder for newspapers, who makes innocusous observations in the normal proceedings of a case as court's final prnouncement and make a mountain out of a molehill. I Salute Justice PalBy: Melvil | Friday , 11 Nov '11 6:05:52 AMReply | ForwardI salute this carping critique of the higher judiciary in India by Justice Pal. Such an honest look from within the

judiciary is rare. An internal performance audit and assessment, if done periodically, can benefit the judges immensely especially from the point of view of their value system and conduct. If I were to prioritize the list of sins mentioned by Justice Pal, I would rate the last sin, that of asking and accepting favors from the executive as unpardonable sin of a judge.

http://www.indianexpress.com/comments/Higher%20judiciary%20guilty%20of%207%20sins:%20exSC%20judge%20pulls%20no%20punches/874183/3 Kudos to Madam Hon'ble Justice and we salute youBy: India citizen | Friday , 11 Nov '11 5:40:53 AM Reply | ForwardMadam, Hon'ble Justice kudos to you and we stand up and salute you for your forthright, free and frank opinions expressed and bringing out the explicit behavior of our Indian judiciary INDEPENDENCE OF JUDICIARYBy: HARJAP SINGH AUJLA | Friday , 11 Nov '11 3:58:50 AM Reply | ForwardI remember the old English adage "Cesar's wife should be above suspicion". All the judges in the country must be fiscally honest and otherwise of impeccable integrity. There should be no place for sycophancy.