#judicialreforms

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Corruption is a big problem in India. Apart from being prevalent at different levels of the local, state and central government and institutions like the police, it is also prevalent in the Indian judiciary.

In the judiciary, corruption may vary from being asked to pay small bribes by court clerks to extract case documents or giving favourable court dates, to bigger scales involving even sitting judges. Various incidents such as where 4 supreme court judges came together in 2018 to decry lack of transparency and other issues, or where a supreme court chief justice was accused of presiding over a case where he himself was one of the accused, highlight the problems existing even in the highest courts of the country.

Many former judges have made statements about corruption in the judiciary. For example, Justice JS Verma, CJI from 1997-98 stated "When I joined the bar 40 years back, no one talked about corruption even in the district judges. Now when people talk about corruption even in the apex court, I feel like it is a slap on my face." Justice MN Venkatachaliah, another former CJI made the statement in 2011 "There are just 25 judges in the Supreme Court in a country with a population of a billion-plus. And even there, some of them turn out corrupt". Justice J Chelameswar of the Supreme Court made the statement in 2018 "Twenty years later some wise men shouldn’t say judges sold their souls." Justice Saldanha of the Karnataka High Court made a statement that 33% of the judiciary is corrupt.

So what is the solution? The Indian judiciary also needs some mechanism to be held accountable for corruption. There should be a medium for members of the public to file complaints about incidents of corruption, which should be looked at by a committee of neutral or retired judges or an independent party. Existing mechanisms such as Right to Information (RTI) Act should also be extended to the judiciary. Appointments of judges to various courts and positions should be made in a transparent manner, free from outside influence including government influence.