Are judges holidaying at public expense?

BENDING RULES? An RTI application shows how judges have gone on holidays at government expense.

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Both judges and their wives spent Rs 5.5 lakh traveling First Class from Delhi to Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok to Singapore to Delhi.

This does not include 5-Star stay or the Entertainment Allowance of Rs 84,000 paid for a seven-day trip, even though the conference took just three days.

RTI queries have revealed other judges who spent big on single trips include:

• Justice Ashok Bhan and wife: Rs 13.66 lakh on air fare in 2006.
• Justice Arijit Passayat and wife: Rs 13.01 lakhs in 2006.
• Justice HK Sema and wife: a single trip in 2007 that cost Rs 11.84 lakh
• Justice BN Agarwal and wife took a trip in 2006 that cost Rs 11.77 lakh
• Justice KG Balakrishnan and wife in 2006 as well, who cost the exchequer Rs 13 lakh.

The Supreme Court has an annual budget of Rs 1.65 crore for the foreign tours of its 26 judges, which is meant for important judicial conferences.

But who decides which conferences are important, whether spouses can go along, or whether private holidays can also be thrown in?

The details of foreign tours of the higher judiciary have been a secret until this RTI application.

While the Chief Justice might be against the judiciary coming under the purview of the RTI Act, the fact is it is the tax payer which is funding a majority of the tours of our judges.