The arrest of a Delhi high court judge in a financial scandal has given an impetus to the Government to introduce a much awaited Bill in the current session to reform the process of appointing and disciplining judges.Displaying a desire to strike the iron when it is hot, Law Minister Arun Jaitley today hinted in the Rajya Sabha that he would introduce the National Judicial Commission Bill before the session ends in a week.Once it is introduced, the Bill involving major Constitutional amendments is expected to be referred to a standing committee which will begin scrutinising the proposed provisions in the inter-sessional period.The Government’s clearly seeking to cash in on the growing outrage in the country over the circumstances in which Justice Shameet Mukherjee of the Delhi high court recently quit office in disgrace.But to meet the short deadline he set for himself to introduce the Bill, Jaitley will have to take a number of steps in fast-forward mode. Sources say that the draft of the Bill is already finalised and the cabinet note on the subject is being circulated. The plan is to get the Cabinet’s nod at the meeting scheduled for Tuesday and get the President’s signature by Thursday so that the Bill can be introduced the next day, April 9, which is the last day of the Budget session.The Bill is politically sensitive given that successive Chief Justices of India opposed the idea in the past as the National Judicial Commission would take away the ‘‘primacy’’ acquired by the judiciary through a 1993 Supreme Court judgment in making judicial appointments.It will be interesting to see if Chief Justice of India V N Khare will come out against the proposal despite the knocks in recent months to the credibility of the high courts in Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and Karnataka.Sources say that the Bill is drafted loosely on the lines suggested last year by the Constitution Review Commission headed by former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah.Besides restoring the executive’s say in judicial appointments, the Bill is designed to introduce ‘‘deviant behaviour’’ as a ground for transferring a judge or withdrawing judicial work from him. The penalty imposed by the proposed National Judicial Commission will be binding. But if that body finds the deviant behaviour serious enough to warrant removal of the judge concerned, then it may ask the Government to initiate the process of impeachment in Parliament.The National Judicial Commission is expected to usher in greater transparency in judicial appointments as its composition includes ‘‘outsiders’’ in the form of the Union law minister and a jurist appointed by the President. In the case of appointments to a high court, the chief minister concerned will also be part of the Commission.It remains to be seen if the Bill seeks to involve those outsiders in the sensitive matter of discipline as well. The Venkatachaliah panel was of the view that a non-judge should not be involved in disciplining judges as the independence of the judiciary would otherwise be compromised.One sop the Bill offers to the judiciary is a provision imposing a stiff penalty on anybody who is found to have made a frivolous or baseless allegation against a judge.
