“There is a dire need to bring transparency in the Indian judiciary” Bar Association of India

Taking cognizance of the crises in the judiciary, the Bar Association of India today passed a resolution for ensuring greater transparency in the judiciary and made certain recommendations.

The resolution passed by Bar Association of India focuses on the following aspects:

• That the Justices of the Supreme Court should collectively establish an institutional structure for the judiciary’s internal governance. To create an environment of collegiality, the Judges are recommended to attend a mutual confidence-building retreat to deliberate upon the issues in a cordial environment.
• Following the example of judiciaries across the globe, this exercise must be carried out with the full strength of the court to establish institutional norms
• The Collegium System cannot be and should never be a substitute for the Court making key decisions affecting its functioning through the collectivity of judiciary which is represented by the Full Court.
• The Chief Justice to remain the Master of the Roster

The Bar Association called a press conference regarding the said resolution where its President Senior Advocate Lalit Bhasin stated that,

“There is a dire need to bring transparency in the Indian judiciary to improve judicial governance.  The association recommends that the equal participation of the Supreme Court and its judges will be essential to create an institutional mechanism that streamlines the judiciary’s governance.”

With regard to the impeachment motion against Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Mishra, Bhasin stated that,

“We believe that the motion for the impeachment of the Chief Justice of India, considering the facts and circumstances, was unwarranted, and was an assault on the institution of Indian judiciary.”

Speaking to Bar & Bench regarding the press conference held by the four senior judges of the Supreme Court, Lalit Bhasin said,

“While one may not approve the manner in which, the Hon’ble four judges of the Supreme Court wanted to project their point of view, but in our resolution passed on January 15, we said that that the issues raised by the judges needed to be addressed. We felt that there was lack of transparency in the matter.

The judiciary should internally evolve some sort of a system where these issues can be addressed without any outside interference. We did not give any advice as to how it should be done. Let the judiciary evolve something on their own.”

Bhasin also stated that instead of the top five judges taking all the decisions, the entire Supreme Court should collectively take the decisions to ensure more transparency,

“The senior-most judges have the shortest tenure, but they take all the decisions which are applicable to all the other judges. Why not have a full court to take the decisions like in the case of designation of senior advocates.”