======================================================================== Dec 6, 2002, 9.30 am onwards... St Xavier's College Mapusa alumni reunion ========================================================================
The Guwahati High Court lawyers have to be commended for having vehemently protested over the reported attempt to transfer an allegedly "tainted judge" from Karnataka to Guwahati. The tainted judge should have tried his luck in hospitable, fun and frolicsome Goa. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar might have welcomed him with joined hands if the tainting included some saffron streaks. We could have then be treated to late night and weekend court sessions. In 1997 a code for judges was accepted with the consent of all High Court judges. The code bars judges from having close association with individual lawyers and emphasises that the judge should practise a degree of aloofness consistent with the dignity of the office and that he shall not accept gifts or hospitality except from his family, close relations and friends. But now, with the spate of serious allegations against some judges, it is time the National Judicial Commission takes shape with a code of conduct for judges on its agenda. The Chief Justice of India G B Pattanaik has now set up a three-member committee to probe the Mysore sex scandal involving three Karnataka high court judges. The committee comprises of two high court chief justices C K Thakkar (Bombay) and G L Gupta (Kerala) and an Orissa high court judge, A K Patnaik. The Chief Justice has reportedly felt that a deeper probe was required into the allegations against the three Karnataka high court judges, Justices N S Veerbhadraiah, Chandrasekhariah and V Gopalagowda, after Karnataka chief justice N K Jain had submitted certain evidence relating to their alleged involvement. The three member committee will verify the allegations regarding the role of these three judges in "immoral" activities at a Mysore resort and also listen to their comments on the issue. The committee will also examine several documents relating to the past conduct of the judges, their trips abroad and in India and also ascertain as to who accompanied them on those trips and as to who financed them. The probe is expected to be a formal judicial inquiry involving examination and cross-examination of witnesses and representations by lawyers. If the committee finds that there is substance in the allegations contained in the complaint and the misconduct disclosed in the allegations is such that it calls for initiation of proceedings for removal of the judge, the Chief Justice of India is expected to advise the judge concerned to resign or seek voluntary retirement. Justice must not merely be done, but it must also be seen to be done. Every judge must at all times be conscious that he is under the public gaze and there should be no act or omission by him which is unbecoming of the high office he occupies and the public esteem in which his office is held. Wherever he is and round the clock a judge is always a judge and so all the acts of omissions and commission by a judge are in the discharge of his duties. People with affinity for wealth, women and wine should never misjudge the system by aspiring to be judges. Aires Rodrigues Ribandar ---------------------------------------------------------- CHRISTMAS PARTIES Dec 21 - GOA-LA, Los Angeles, CA, USA, [EMAIL PROTECTED], +1 (714) 821-6168 Dec 14 - New England Goans, Wellesly, MA, USA, [EMAIL PROTECTED], +1 (603) 673-3762 Dec 14 - Goan Association of New Jersey, Inc., Somerset, NJ, USA, +1 (732) 599-7644
