MPs Demand FIR, Code of Conduct After Cash Recovery from Ex-Judge's Home

 New Delhi: Several MPs at a parliamentary panel meeting on Tuesday asked why no FIR had been lodged over the recovery of unaccounted cash from the residence of Delhi High Court former judge Justice Yashwant Varma, and told the department of justice to prepare a detailed note on the matter, sources said.

The MPs also demanded a code of conduct for judges, and said judges in the higher judiciary should not take up government assignments for five years after retirement, they said.

During a meeting of the parliamentary committee on law and justice, MPs of various parties raised the issue and posed several queries to the ministry on what it was doing on matters raised concerning the judiciary and questioned its silence, the sources said.

They said the secretary in the department of justice made a presentation on 'judicial processes and their reform' concerning issues of code of conduct for the higher judiciary and judges taking up post-retirement assignments. The officials was asked to prepare a comprehensive report on the issues and present it at the next panel meeting.

The sources add that at the request of some members, the department of justice was told to prepare a comprehensive bill addressing various issues and concerns on ethics and code of conduct of judges raised by them during the meeting.

The MPs asked why no action had been taken on the matter concerning the recovery of unaccounted cash from the residence Justice Varma, currently with the Allahabad High Court, and demanded that a code of conduct should be in place. Justice Varma has denied the charges against him.

Some MPs asked why no motion to remove Justice Varma had been moved so far and referenced the ‘K. Veeraswami versus Union of India’ judgement of 1991 that addressed the applicability of anti-corruption laws to judges of the higher judiciary and underscores the importance of judicial independence.

Sources said some demanded that justice should be equitable since a government employee may lose his/her job over a small corruption issue but no action has been initiated against a senior member of the judiciary even after the recovery of unaccounted cash.

MPs of several parties also demanded that the government should have brought a motion by now to remove the judge concerned, especially after a Supreme Court-appointed committee of judges found the recovery of cash to be true.

Law ministry officials later pointed out that a Supreme Court judgment had ruled that prior sanction would be required to prosecute top court and High Court judges.

The top court had underlined that judges were indeed “public servants” under the Prevention of Corruption Act but noted that prior sanction would be required to prosecute a judge.

The MPs also sought an end to the practice of relatives of judges practising in the same court which, they said, affected the administration of true justice.

The committee of the Rajya Sabha is headed by BJP MP Brij Lal and has former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, nominated MP, former minister of state for law P.P. Chaudhary, TMC MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Kalyan Banerjee, Congress's Vivek Tankha, and DMK's P. Wilson and A. Raja as its key members.

Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi did not attend Tuesday's meeting.