Judicial Standards Bill to be brought in winter session

A Bill on judicial standards will be brought in the Winter Session of Parliament, the Government said today indicating that a controversial clause which debars judges from making verbal comments against any constitutional authority in open courts could be retained “in some form’’.

“It will remain in some form,” Law Minister Ashwani Kumar told reporters here in response to questions on the clause in the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill.

He, however, did not elaborate and said the bill will be brought in the coming session.

The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session this year amid din over Telangana.

Following stiff opposition by eminent jurists and the higher judiciary, the Government had agreed to have a relook at the clause even as it decided against tabling it in Rajya Sabha in the Monsoon Session.

The Opposition too had demanded amending the clause. It allows the citizens to complain against corrupt judges, but has been facing criticism for this provision which jurists says would “virtually gag” the judges in open courts.

The clause prohibits judges from making “unwarranted comments against conduct of any constitutional or statutory authority or statutory bodies or statutory institutions or any chairperson or member or officer thereof, or on the matters which are pending or likely to arise for judicial determination.”

Kumar’s predecessor Salman Khurshid had said that he would “go back to the Cabinet” with the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill with some “minor amendments’’.

He said the amendments were more like cleaning up of text and were more “cosmetic” in nature.

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