The Hindu Business Line : Dangerous portent

OLD-timers would have felt shattered at the news that 26 out of 28 Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court went on "mass casual leave", reportedly in protest against the Chief Justice asking two of the Judges to explain their acceptance of free membership of a golf club which was involved in a case being heard by that very High Court.

There are no words strong enough to express the horror and revulsion at the judiciary too being infected by the precipitous fall in standards witnessed everywhere.

Over the past few years, incident after incident implicating quite a few Judges of various High Courts in some shameful escapades had been surfacing. The Punjab and Haryana High Court itself was the object of some revolting publicity when three of its Judges were alleged to have secured jobs for their relatives by unfair means in collusion with the Chairman of the State Public Service Commission.

The higher judiciary had been looked up to as exemplars of discipline, devotion to duty and commitment to public interest. It was viewed as the bulwark, bastion and buttress of norms of propriety and probity in the context of perversion of other institutions such as the legislature, the bureaucracy and the police. Now, the sacrosanct judiciary too seems to be crumbling. This is a dangerous portent.

Any instance of misconduct by the Judges of High Courts sets a terrible example to all the other sections of the society. It further aggravates the widely prevalent atmosphere of indiscipline, indifference and indolence in private and public sectors. It affects the youth and students who are misled into emulating the errant.

The impression gaining ground is that judicial accountability has fallen by the wayside, the situation being worsened by the absence of effective safeguards. The enforcement of what nebulous codes exist is also lacking.

The time has come to amend the Constitution, if necessary, to ensure that High Court Judges betraying public trust are visited with summary retribution, and at the minimum, barred from appointment as the Chief Justice of a High Court or elevation to the Supreme Court.

At least half the strength of the higher courts should be drawn from organised judicial services whose members, by training and upbringing, have greater regard for scruples.

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