Over 1,600 Complaints On Functioning Of Judiciary In Past 5 Yrs, Forwarded To Respective Chief Justices As Per 'In-House Procedure': Law Ministry

The Ministry of Law and Justice informed Lok Sabha that during last 5 years i.e. from 01.01.2017 to 31.12.2021, 1631 complaints were received in the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) on the functioning of the judiciary including judicial corruption and forwarded to the CJI/Chief Justice of High Courts, respectively, as per the procedure established under "in-house mechanism".

The aforesaid information was provided in response to the questions posed by MPs Gnanathiraviam S and Malook Nagar regarding corruption in judiciary.

The Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated that accountability in higher judiciary is maintained through "in-house mechanism". He added that the Supreme Court, in its full Court meeting on 7th May, 1997, adopted two Resolutions namely (i) "The Restatement of Values of Judicial Life" which lays down certain judicial standards and principles to be observed and followed by the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts (ii) "in-house procedure‟ for taking suitable remedial action against judges who do not follow universally accepted values of Judicial life including those included in the Restatement of Values of Judicial life.

Further, he mentioned that as per the established "In-house procedure‟ for the Higher Judiciary, the Chief Justice of India is competent to receive complaints against the conduct of Judges of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justices of the High Courts. Similarly, he informed that the Chief Justices of the High Courts are competent to receive complaints against the conduct of High Court Judges. The complaints/representations received are forwarded to the Chief Justice of India or to the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court, as the case may be, for appropriate action, he added.

Essentially, MPs Gnanathiraviam S and Malook Nagar have raised the following questions:

"(a) whether incidents of alleged corruption in the judiciary has increased in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the action taken by the Government in this regard;
(c) whether any legislative framework exists for empowering a judicial forum to deal with such cases; and
(d) if so, the details thereof along with the reaction of the Government in this regard?"

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