Need to scale-up the mechanisms of ‘accountability’ within judiciary

In a view of the functioning of the Supreme Court (SC) as being the highest decision-making authority in the country with all-pervasive powers, it has recommended finetuning its workings and overcoming the loopholes simultaneously.

• For decades, the Supreme Court has attracted disproportionate public attention and international admiration for its judicial interventions with its well-known innovations like-
  • Public interest litigation
  • Basic structure doctrine
  • The concomitant judicialization of politics in India
• In the last few instances, however, there has been a general sense of disappointment with the Supreme Court, with a widely shared lament that the court has failed to be a protector of democratic institutions.

The Supreme Court: (Roles and Responsibilities)

• The Supreme Court is the apex court of India.
• The judges of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President in consultation with other judges of the Supreme Court and high court.
• The Supreme Court is primarily a court of appeal though it hears cases in the original jurisdiction.
• It is the last resort in case of appeals.
• It is the guarantor and guardian of Fundamental Rights and exercises the power of judicial review to check the actions of legislative and administrative authority.
• It has the power of giving an advisory opinion to the President in certain matters.
• It hears interstates disputes and disputes between centers and states.
• It issues writs for the enforcement of fundamental rights and hears PIL (Public Interest Legislation).

Concerns associated with the Working:

• Government interference: In 2018, four senior sitting judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference and aired their grievances against the administration of the court by the then Chief Justice, hinting at government interference.
• The unexplained transfer is a common affair.
• Sealed cover: The increasing incidence of sealed-cover jurisprudence, where the government engages privately with the court, in a public hearing, without sharing information with the opposite party, has occasioned considerable protest.
• Erosion of constitutional morality: India also saw Erosion of constitutional morality most clearly in the case of Fr Stan Swamy who was denied a straw, denied decent healthcare, and denied bail all in the name of the “rule of law”.
• High rate of case pendency: As of May 2022, over 4.7 crore cases are pending in courts across different levels of the judiciary. Of them, 87.4% are pending in subordinate courts, 12.4% in High Courts, and nearly 1, 82,000 cases have been pending for over 30 years.
• Under trials on the rise: As per the Prison Statistics-2020, released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), under trials accounted for 76% of the total inmates in around 1,300 prisons across the country.
• Unavailability of any law for Judges: There is no law in India to guide our judges — only “guidelines”.

Suggestive measures:

• Making stringent rules for Judges: There is a need to make laws against any misdeed by any judicial authority and must be punished as per the rules mentioned under it.
  • For example; The 1980 US Act confers powers on bodies comprised of judges to take such action against a federal judge ‘as is appropriate, short of removal’.
• Relaxation of provisions for removal of a Judge/Official
• Citizen-centric approach to Judiciary must be ensured