The Bar Council of India has forwaded a list of 131 judges of various high courts found having relatives practising in the same court to the Law Ministry.The list was released at a news conference today evening by BCI Vice-Chairman Adish C. Aggarwala and its Executive Committee Chairman S.K. Kaarvendhan.Announcing the list, Aggarwala said, ‘‘This creates doubts in the public’s mind about the judges’ fairness, we have asked the Centre and Supreme Court to transfer such judges to other states.’’‘‘We have forwarded the list to the Law Ministry on their request as questions were raised in Parliament regarding the issue,’’ Aggarwala said.The BCI had, a few weeks back, written to all state bar councils across the country, asking them to submit a list of all those judges in their respective high courts whose relatives were also practising there. The BCI had said in February this year that such a practice was in violation of rules.The BCI subsequently released the names of such judges in the Delhi, Bombay and Rajasthan HCs which were submitted by the respective bar councils. It said today that of the total 499 judges in 21 high courts across the country, 131 were found having family members practising in the same court.It also threatened to hold a meeting of state bar councils to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the ‘‘privileged relatives’’ for cancellation of licences.According to the list submitted by the BCI, Karnataka High Court has the maximum number of such judges with 17 of them found having relatives practising in the same court, followed by Delhi HC with 15 and Allahabad HC with 12 judges.While Calcutta HC has 11 such judges, others like Punjab and Haryana HC, Kerala HC and Andhra Pradesh HC have 10 judges each.Next on the list is Madras HC with nine judges followed by Mumbai HC with eight and Jharkhand HC with four judges. Gauhati, Himachal Pradesh and Cuttack high courts have three judges each on the list.While none of the three judges of the newly-formed Uttaranchal High Court has made it to the list, J-K High Court has just one judge in it.Sikkim, Gujarat and Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh) bar councils have not yet submitted the names of the high court judges.
