DC Edit | SC Must Ensure HC Judge, Like Anyone, Faces the Law

Doubts about the chances of corrupt individuals presiding over courts in India have been widely expressed, starting from oblique references to plain statements about the share of tainted judges within the system. The events that followed a fire that gutted loads of currency notes in the house of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma have proved the whistleblowers right. The ball is now lying with the Supreme Court of India, and it needs to take decisive action this time.

It is not that people are unaware of black sheep entering the hallowed precincts of Indian courts, but those who were in the know looked the other way. The natural question that follows is why the investigative agencies mandated to chase such people did not do their job. The answer lies in the response of the head of the Delhi Fire Services that his men who had rushed to the judge’s house on a fire alert did not find the currency collection. This is an example of how no one, including those in senior positions, would like to touch the powerful who might think of themselves as above the law.

To play safe might often be the best way, and hence the inability to “find” the fruits of heist.

The executive branch of government may ignore the rot that is undoing the judiciary for fear of repercussions or for convenience, while the legislative wing may stay off the “lakshmanrekha” instead of devising the means to stem it. Which leaves the entire problem at the door of the Supreme Court.

The country’s apex court has an added responsibility, for the Indian judiciary is a self-perpetuating institution, thanks to the fierce fights it has fought on several occasions in the name of protecting its independence. The framers of the Constitution were quite clear on the dangers of such a phenomenon developing later, and had unequivocally rejected anything more than a consultative role for the judiciary in the appointment of judges in the higher courts. Hence, they had designed procedures for picking people to the bench in both the Supreme Court and the high courts with checks and balances. It was the Supreme Court that frustrated every attempt to give the elected government any say in the process by expanding the scope of consultation in appointments to virtual control over it. Every judge sitting in the constitutional courts in the country today is a product of the system that the Supreme Court has designed.

It appears that the apex court has recognised the enormousness of the situation and hence its decision to upload the visuals of the burned bundles of currency notes on its website. It has also appointed a committee of three senior high court judges in the country — including two who are chief justices of high courts — to investigate the allegations against the Delhi high court judge. The Supreme Court must now order a criminal investigation into the discovery of unaccounted cash in the house of a judge, a public servant, and ensure that he, like any citizen of India, faces the law in its full majesty. Anything less will be insufficient to restore the sanctity of the nation’s judicial system, which has been badly tarnished by this incident.