--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Documented by Goa Desc Documentation Service & circulated by Goa Civic & Consumer Action Network (GOA CAN)<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Ph:2252660 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One in five judges has kin practising in same High Court:BCI ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nearly a fifth of India's senior judges have relatives practising in courts over which they preside, a practice frowned upon by the Bar Council of India (BCI) as a possible source of corruption.Data received at the council, a statutory body of nearly a million lawyers enrolled nationwide, indicate that the practice is wider spread than might have been suspected.
As the BCI vice chairman, Mr Adish Aggarwala put it: "It's not a case or two here and there. It's almost rampant." India's 21 High Courts have about 500 judges in position, the rest of the sanctioned 647 posts being vacant.
Reports from Bar groups and members show that more than 100 judges in 16 High Courts have relatives some as many as four or five enrolled or practising in the same court. They include judges' sons, daughters, parents, siblings, nephews, nieces, uncles, cousins, in-laws and so on.
Bar groups in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa and parts of Madhya Pradesh have yet to reply, Mr Aggarwala said. The practice is a definite 'don't' under the BCI rules of standards of professional conduct and etiquette.
The BCI rule: "An advocate shall not enter appearance, act, plead or practise in any way before a court, tribunal or authority mentioned in Section 30 of the Act, if the sole or any member thereof is related to the advocate as father, grandfather, son, grand-son, uncle, brother, nephew, first cousin, husband, wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, brother-in-law, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law."
The ball was set rolling a few months ago with the BCI asking Bar associations and state Bar councils to send particulars on members practising in High Courts presided over by relatives.
A few weeks ago, Bar leaders held a news conference and disclosed names of 32 judges of Delhi, Mumbai and Rajasthan High Courts who between them have 44 relatives practising law in their courts.They explained that such bench-bar kinships were viewed as a possible source of corruption.
The law fraternity is "anguished and disturbed" at "corruption in the indian judiciary" and "allegations of unfair means adopted by some of the near relations of the judges practising in the same court," they said in a statement.
They sought the Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice V N Khare's intervention "to transfer all those judges whose relations are practising in the same courts to check such unfair practice."
Alternatively, the Bar leaders said the state Bar councils have "to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the relations of the judges who are practising in the same courts."They made it clear that lawyers in such a situation were forbidden to practise in the entire court not just before a specific bench.
Asked what the BCI will do with the information, Mr Aggarwala said it was forwarded to the government which had received inquiries from MPs and was also being transmitted to Mr Justice Khare for action.The Bar spokesman recalled similar efforts made in 1993-94 during the tenure of former chief justice, Mr Justice M N Venkatachaliah.
At a BCI workshop at Kollam, Kerala a year and a half ago, India's then chief justice, Mr Justice Sam Piroj Bharucha indicated that as many as twenty per cent of judges were corrupt.
"More than 80 per cent of the judges in this country, across the board,
are honest and incorruptible," he said. "It is that smaller percentage that
brings the entire judiciary into disrepute. To make it known that the judiciary
does not tolerate corruption in its ranks, it is requisite that corrupt judges
should be investigated and dismissed from service."
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The Navhind Times 23/7/03 page 7
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