Indian judiciary at the crossroads – Reform or perish

 

  “Fire at Delhi HC judge’s house leads to recovery of cash pile,” – reported Times of India, Mumbai edition dated March 21, 2025 in its headlines.

     A fire broke out in Delhi high court judge Justice Yashwant Varma’s residential bungalow. When the fire broke out, Justice Varma was not in town and his family members called the fire brigade and the police. After the fire was doused, a huge amount of cash was found inside a room (some reports claimed no less than 50 crores in sacks), which could in all probability be unaccounted ill-gotten money.

     It appears that initially a desperate attempt was made to conceal the cash slash. But the news reached the higher ups in the government, who in turn, informed the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Sanjiv Khanna about the hoarded pile of cash. The CJI called for a collegium meeting and the collegium unanimously decided to transfer Justice Varma to his parent HC, Allahabad HC.

      However, some saner members of the five-judge collegium were not too happy with the decision. If such a serious misconduct is let off with just a transfer, it would severely tarnish the image and reputation of the judicial system but also badly erode the public trust in the institution. These collegium members strongly feel that Justice Varma should have been asked to resign. If the accused declines, an in-house enquiry should be initiated by the CJI, as the first step and subsequently ask the government towards his removal by Parliament.

     Justice Varma was also involved in a fraud case in 2018 and a FIR was filed against him in a UP based Simbhaoli Sugar Mill scam. Despite serious allegations no major action was taken against the tainted Varma. A court ordered the CBI to resume the probe in 2024, but the Supreme Court overturned the directive shutting down the investigation.

    The above case is only a tip of an iceberg. Indian judiciary unlike government or parliament has zero outside scrutiny. It is accountable to nobody. Judges have become corrupt. There is lot of corruption in judiciary. In the collegium system followed in India, the judges always save their own fraternity. In the garb of judicial independence, the judges have become unquestionable and brazenly indulge in corrupt practices. 

   “Corruption in the judiciary is well known. In the case of Justice Yashwant Varma, a FIR should have been lodged and all other actions like internal enquiry should have been taken later. Transferring is a no solution; have you been able to reduce corruption by transferring,” asks retired Justice S N Dhingra on SC Collegium’s recommendation to transfer the corrupt judge.

“Are we trash bins? We demand impeachment as he has corruption charges against him,” says Vikrant Pandey, Secretary, Bar Association of Allahabad HC.

   The Indian judicial system is grappling with an astronomical backlog of cases that has persisted for years, leading to delayed justice, biased proceedings and wrong judgements. If the corruption cancer is allowed to spread unchecked along with the already existing maladies, public trust in the judicial system will be completely lost. “If people can’t trust the judges, it is the end of democracy. Ceaser’s wife must be above suspicion,” says Harish Salve, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Ex-Solicitor General of India.

      Judicial reform is the urgent need to ensure credibility, efficiency, transparency, and public faith in the judicial system. Before discussing about the reforms, it is necessary to understand the present flawed Collegian system.

      The collegium system in India is a mechanism, derived from judicial pronouncements rather than the Constitution, for appointing and transferring judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts, involving the CJI and four other senior-most judges of the court. This system aims to ensure judicial independence by giving senior judges, rather than the executive branch, the authority to make judicial nominations and transfers. The collegium recommends the names of potential candidates to the government. The government can seek clarifications or raise objections, but if the collegium reiterates its recommendations, the government is bound to appoint the judges. The appointment of the Chief Justice of India and the Supreme Court judges are within the purview of the President of India, with the collegium playing a pivotal role in providing recommendations for potential candidates.

     The above system has several flaws. There is lack of transparency and formal binding rules. The system lacks clear guidelines for selecting judges, potentially leading to nepotism and favoritism. The complete exclusion of the executive from the judicial appointment process creates a system where a few judges appoint the rest in complete secrecy. Collegium is not accountable to any administrative body that may lead to the wrong choice of the candidate while overlooking the right candidate. The principle of checks and balance is completely absent in this system. The worst part is the collegium system gives immense power, no accountability and greater risk of misuse and abuse.

      At the Union level, the Ministry of Law and Justice is responsible for formulating laws and addressing issues relating to the judiciary with the Parliament. In 2014, the Indian Parliament enacted the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act through the 99 ^th Amendment to the Constitution, aiming to replace the Collegium System with a Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC). However, in 2015, the Supreme Court declared the Act unconstitutional and struck it down.

      India has the most pending cases in the world. As of 2024, the pending cases across different levels and types of judiciaries topped 51 million including more than 169,000 district and high court cases that are waiting for more than 30 years. Notably, the district courts alone handle over 87% of these cases, or roughly 45 million, highlighting the enormous burden at the grassroots level. The 2018 NITI Aayog strategy paper says that it would take more than 324 years with the present rate of case disposal to clear the backlog. The World Justice Project’s Rule of Index 2023 ranks India at 111 out of 142 nations in civil justice and 93 in criminal justice, which reflects the court delays.

      There is utmost urgency to resurrect the dying judicial system in India, a land where a Chola king by the name Manu Needhi Cholan sacrificed his son to pronounce justice to a cow. It is time to create an independent, transparent, efficient, credible judiciary with adequate safeguards to preserve the judiciary’s independence guaranteeing judicial primacy and supremacy but not judicial exclusivity.

      It is time that all the political parties, irrespective of their ideological differences work together and use their collective wisdom to revive and revitalize India’s justice mechanism before it reaches the point of no return and totally crumbles.

   Can this be expected from our present breed of mostly corrupt, power hungry, and self-serving political class?

   A million-dollar question indeed!

 

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