Devil's Advocate: K G Balakrishnan

FINAL VERDICT: CJI says he's not in the favour of judges declaring their assets.

      

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Keywords: K G Balakrishnan, Karan Thapar

Karan Thapar: You are absolutely confident of that?

K G Balakrishnan: I am confident of that.

Karan Thapar: You have no doubt in your mind.

K G Balakrishnan: No doubt, I can tell you on the basis of the allegations or complaints that I have received.

Karan Thapar: Okay. One of your illustrious predecessors Chief Justice Verma in a letter to the Prime Minister last April said that the mechanism for judicial accountability is inadequate, and in that letter he called for creating an effective mechanism to enforce judicial accountability at the higher level. Do you agree that you need a better mechanism to enforce judicial discipline?

K G Balakrishnan: I would welcome if there is a better mechanism for finding out the corrupt judges or to remove the corruption. Whatever noble things, I would certainly welcome.

Karan Thapar: The Government has introduced a Bill in Parliament to create what’s called a National Judicial Council, to provide powers short of impeachment to discipline errant judges. Do you welcome that?

K G Balakrishnan: The Judges Enquiry Act.

Karan Thapar: That’s right. Do you welcome it?

K G Balakrishnan: There is no question of welcoming it, if the Parliament passes any enactment or any law passed by the Parliament, we are bound by that.

Karan Thapar: Except for the fact that if you as judge believe that the law is wrong, you can strike it down. So will you act to strike it down?

K G Balakrishnan: I couldn’t say whether the Act would be struck down or not. I couldn’t say at this stage.

Karan Thapar: Let me put it like this - you are the Chief Justice of India and for the Indian people you are the symbol of the Indian judiciary. Your opinion is very important to them. Because many people are concerned about allegations of corruption, they want to know, do you believe that the proposal, made by the Government being considered by Parliament, is the right sort of proposal?

K G Balakrishnan: There are some allegations so it’s better there should be a mechanism to find out whether anything could be done in this regard.