Corruption in judiciary will not be tolerated: CJI Thakur

Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur on Sunday asserted that there would be no tolerance towards deviant behaviour and corruption by judges.

"We will be intolerant towards deviant behaviour and allegations of corruption and cleanse the institution," he said on being asked about allegations of corruption against certain judges in the course of his interaction with media persons after assuming office as the CJI.

On being asked about Justice C.S. Karnan of Madras High Court who has been at loggerheads with his chief justice, Chief Justice Thakur, without mentioning any individual judge, said: "We will take note of it and take corrective action for any deviant behaviour coming (from judiciary) from Kashmir to Kanyakumari."

"The system must react to what is not acceptable. We should not remain quiet on what is not acceptable," he said, indicating the course that the top judiciary would take in dealing with errant judges during his tenure which would last just over a year.

Citing the difficulties in dealing with deviant judges, Chief Justice Thakur pointed out that "in case of doubtful situation, the benefit of doubt would go to the institution (of judiciary) and not to the individual".

He said there were some misgivings about how certain judges conduct themselves and that brings into question the issue of credibility.