{"id":197013,"date":"2022-07-23T17:55:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T12:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=197013"},"modified":"2022-07-23T17:56:18","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T12:26:18","slug":"judging-our-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/judging-our-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Judging Our Judges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cJudging our judges\u201d<\/strong> published in The Times of India<\/strong> on 23rd July 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS 2 Functioning of the Indian Judiciary<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Judicial Transparency and Accountability<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: Recently, AK Ganguly, a former judge of the Supreme Court, commented that India is a \u201cmature\u201d democracy.<\/strong> However, JB Pardiwala, a present SC judge, commented more recently that India isn\u2019t a \u201ccompletely mature\u201d democracy<\/strong>. This raised a debate
\nover whether India is a \u201cmature\u201d democracy?<\/p>\n

What are the parameters of a mature democracy?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Transparency is the hallmark<\/strong> of a mature democracy<\/strong>. This implies the dissemination of information<\/strong> to the citizen, especially about the public servants who are funded through the public exchequer<\/strong>. This also applies in the case of Indian democracy.<\/p>\n

Democracy seems to be more mature when the disclosure of information has been done voluntarily than due to the stick of law (or legal mandate).<\/p>\n

Why is India a mature democracy?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The public servants including Ministers<\/strong>, MPs,<\/strong> and Bureaucrats<\/strong> (all-India services) disclose information about their assets and liabilities.<\/p>\n

The government has also enacted the <\/strong>Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act (2013)<\/strong><\/a> for that reason.<\/p>\n

Why is India not a completely mature democracy?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In India, the judiciary has failed to disclose the information voluntarily.<\/p>\n

The government tried to make it mandatory through the \u2018Declaration of Assets and Liabilities by Supreme Court, High Court and Subordinate Court Judges Bill\u2019 of 2009.<\/strong> However, the law could not be passed.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the Central Information Commission (CIC)<\/strong> tried to bring judges under the ambit of the RTI. But SC and HCs exempted themselves from the disclosure under Right to Information (RTI) Act.<\/p>\n

In 1997, the SC adopted a resolution, making asset disclosure<\/strong> mandatory for SC judges. Some of the HCs also followed the path. But they mandated the disclosure within \u201ca reasonable time\u201d<\/strong> after assuming office. There were no clear deadlines. Therefore, the rules failed.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the SC resolution watered down mandatory disclosure <\/strong>to voluntary disclosure. Further, the 2009 resolution of the Supreme Court (SC) was followed by around 25 High Courts (HCs). <\/strong><\/p>\n

Status of voluntary disclosure by the Judges at Global and India<\/strong><\/h5>\n

(A) Indian Judiciary (as<\/strong> of 13 July 2022)) <\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) The SC\u2019s website<\/strong> gives asset information<\/strong> for only four judges. Of these, two (including the former Chief Justice) have already retired.<\/p>\n

(2) Out of 25 HCs, only 7 HCs have put the information about the assets and liabilities of judges on their websites. However, the percentage of judges who have done voluntary declarations<\/strong> varies across these 7 HCs.<\/p>\n

(a) Punjab & Haryana HC, Kerala HC, and Himachal HC have disclosed information of 75% of judges. Thus, these can be said to be matured institutions.<\/p>\n

(b) The Delhi HC has published information of only 36. 1% judges.<\/p>\n

(B) Global: <\/strong>As per the findings of the report titled \u2018Getting the Full Picture on Public Officials\u2019<\/strong> in 2017, published by the World Bank<\/strong> and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

(1) In more than half of the 161 countries covered, judges and prosecutors mandatorily disclose assets.<\/p>\n

(2) More than 60% of the SC judges have done disclosure.<\/p>\n

(3) In 56% of those 161 countries, in addition to the public officials<\/strong>, judges and prosecutors are also required to disclose assets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on an article \u201cJudging our judges\u201d published in The Times of India on 23rd July 2022. Syllabus: GS 2 Functioning of the Indian Judiciary Relevance: Judicial Transparency and Accountability News: Recently, AK Ganguly, a former judge of the Supreme Court, commented that India is a \u201cmature\u201d democracy. However, JB Pardiwala,… Continue reading Judging Our Judges<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10496],"class_list":["post-197013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-times-of-india","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}