Delhi High Court Bar Association sets up Grievance Committee to fight “corruption, favouritism and nepotism” in the higher judiciary

Relations between the Bar and the Bench seem to be on the wane. A week after Prashant Bhushan filed a criminal complaint against Justice CK Prasad, the Delhi High Court Bar Association has taken the High Court to task..The DHCBA has announced the formation of a Grievance Committee as part of its anti-corruption initiative. As per a circular dated 20th February 2015, the Committee is in resposne to the “pain and agony” suffered by lawyers who lack a redressal forum for complaints against judges..The DHCBA circular goes onto state that,.“Realising the sufferings of the members, the Bar Association as a first step, took initiative by preparing and forwarding a list of advocates for assignments of Local Commissions on rotation basis and requested the Chief Justice to create a link on the official website of the Delhi High Court to bring transparency.”However it appears that this request was not acceded to, and that judges of the Delhi High Court, “continued to give undue favours to their favorites.” .Hence, the DHCBA has decided to form the Grievance Committee to,.“[D] eal with corruption, favouritism and nepotism….the members can also give anonymous complaints but the same should contain the specific information with relevant material.”.Speaking to Bar & Bench, the DHCBA President Rajiv Khosla outlined the functions of the Committee.. “Our intention in setting up this committee is very clear; to weed out corruption from an institution that is an important pillar of the society. Litigants come to us as a last resort and if we don’t clean up our system how will they impose faith on us? We wish to make the system of awarding local commissions, arbitration and mediations to advocates, a transparent medium so that nobody gets undue favours because of being related to a judge.”.Explaining that the Association ought to be an investigative tool as well as a redressal forum, Khosla further commented,.“So many times we see sons, daughters, relatives of both sitting and retired judges making millions even in their initial years of practice. We do not wish to level allegations or take names of anybody as most of them are sitting judges of the higher judiciary but we expect members to come to us with specific proof of corrupt practices and help us in taking appropriate action. So far the only way that we get to know about these practices is heresay and talk in the canteen which is why strict action cannot be taken.”.As far as the procedure is concerned, once the complaint is received, it will be verified. Post verification, the Grievance Committee will disclose the details to the members of the Bar, as well as the Chief Justice of India to initiate necessary steps.