CJI competent to receive complaints against SC judges and CJs of High Courts: Centre

New Delhi, Dec 5 2024-

As per the established “In-house procedure” for the constitutional judiciary, the Chief Justice of India (CJI) is competent to receive complaints against the conduct of judges of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justices of the High Courts, the Parliament was informed on Thursday.

Similarly, the Chief Justices of the High Courts are competent to receive complaints against the conduct of High Court judges, Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal told Rajya Sabha member P. Wilson in a written reply.

Wilson had asked the government for reasons due to which it has not evolved a code of conduct for judges for discharge of functions in consultation with the CJI.

In response, the Law and Justice Minister said that the Supreme Court, in its full Court meeting in May 1997 had adopted two resolutions. The first resolution “The Restatement of Values of Judicial Life” lays down certain judicial standards and principles to be observed and followed by the judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, and the second “in-house procedure” provides for taking suitable remedial action against judges who do not follow universally accepted values of judicial life including those included in the Restatement.

Regarding the pendency of cases before the tribunals across the country, the minister said tribunals are governed by various Acts administered by different ministries and the pendency of cases may be due to various factors including circumstances and complexity of each case, nature of evidence, cooperation of stakeholders and frequent adjournments, non-compliance with the summons issued by the tribunals, seeking intervention in the tribunals’ proceedings, non-appearance in the proceedings and then challenging the ex parte orders passed against them.

The absence of lawyers and frequent adjournments by the lawyers also result in pendency, the minister added. Further, he said that the process of establishing benches of tribunals is undertaken by the ministry concerned based on the requirements. (Agency)