Cabinet may okay withdrawal of clause gagging judges

A Bill which seeks to provide for accountability of judges is likely to be on the Union Cabinet's table for the fourth time tomorrow, this time to withdraw a clause which debars judges from making verbal comments against any constitutional authority in open courts.
Following protests by the judiciary and jurists, the Law Ministry has decided to take back the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill to the Union Cabinet to drop the clause.
The last time the bill had gone to the Union Cabinet was in December, 2012 when it had decided retain the controversial clause with certain amendments.
The Bill has already been passed in the Lok Sabha and is pending in Rajya Sabha.

The earlier clause prohibited judges from making "unwarranted comments against conduct of any constitutional or statutory authority or statutory bodies or statutory institutions or any chairperson or member or officer thereof, or on the matters which are pending or likely to arise for judicial determination."
The proposal now is to drop this clause all together as a fresh view in the Law Ministry is that retaining it was not practical.

The Bill will have to travel back to the Lok Sabha after its passage in the Upper House.
The Bill also seeks to establish a credible and expedient mechanism for investigating into individual complaints for misbehaviour or incapacity of a judge of the Supreme Court or of a High Court and to regulate the procedure for such investigation.

The then Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia had, addressing a Supreme Court function on Independence Day in 2012, cautioned that "the government may make law for making judges accountable. We are not afraid of that. But it should not tinker with the very constitutional principle of judicial independence.