Transfer Of Judges Not A Solution For Complaints Against Them : Justice Chandrachud

Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud said that transfer of judges is not a solution for complaints against them, as per The Indian Express.

"There is nothing between impeachment and transfer. We need a system that is more nuanced than what we currently have to make judges accountable," the Indian Express quoted Justice Chandrachud.

The comments assume significance in the wake of the resignation of Madras High Court Chief Justice V K Tahilramani, which was apparently in protest of the Collegium proposal to transfer her to Meghalaya High Court.

The judge was speaking at the launch function of the book 'How to Save a Constitutional Democracy' by Tom Ginsburg, professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.

Justice Chandrachud also spoke in favour of increasing the retirement age of judges and appointment of ad-hoc judges to tackle the problem of backlog.

"I see no reason to not appoint ad hoc judges in high courts with large vacancies. Even the Supreme Court had three ad hoc judges when the Kesavananda Bharati case was being heard to take care of day-to-day work of the court since 13 judges were hearing that case for months," he said.

"If you are good enough to serve as a Supreme Court judge till 65, why are you only good enough to serve as a judge of a high court till 62 years," he asked.

"You need to trust your judges. We do need a more balanced process but the final outcome of that process cannot be questioned.", he said criticizing personal attack on judges for their verdicts.