NEW DELHI: Accountability in higher judiciary is maintained through “in-house mechanism,” Union Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Kiren Rijiju has recently said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
During the last five years, 1631 complaints were received in the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) on the functioning of the judiciary including judicial corruption and forwarded to the CJI/Chief Justice of High Courts, respectively, as per the procedure established under “in-house mechanism.”
As per the established “In-house procedure’ for the Higher Judiciary, the Chief Justice of India is competent to receive complaints against the conduct of Judges of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justices of the High Courts.
Similarly, the Chief Justices of the High Courts are competent to receive complaints against the conduct of High Court Judges.The complaints/representations received are forwarded to the Chief Justice of India or to the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court, as the case may be, for appropriate action.
The Supreme Court of India, in its full Court meeting on May 7, 1997, adopted two Resolutions namely ‘The Restatement of Values of Judicial Life” which lays down certain judicial standards and principles to be observed and followed by the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts and “in-house procedure’ for taking suitable remedial action against judges who do not follow universally accepted values of
Judicial life including those included in the Restatement of Values of judicial life.