NEW DELHI: Judges of the apex court in the country, the Supreme Court and the high courts will come under the purview of the prevention of corruption act and the president shall act on the advice of the chief justice of India while according permission to launch prosecution against them, a constitution bench of the apex court ruled Thursday.
In a four-10-one majority Judgement the five-judge bench headed by Justice B C Ray held that the act applied to judges and directed that no criminal case against a judge or chief justice of a high court or a judge of the Supreme Court be registered without prior permission of the chief justice of India.
In their 166-page Judgement, the judges observed that due regard should be given by the union govt on the opinion expressed by the Chief Justice of India.
The majority view was expressed by justice B C Ray, Justice K J Shetty, Justice M N Venkatachallaiah and Justice L M Sharma. A dissenting Judgement was delivered by justice J S Verma.
The judges laid down the following guidelines to govern the conduct of judges who were facing prosecution.
(a)If a judge is convicted for the offence of criminal misconduct or any other offence involving moral turpitude it is but proper for him to keep himself away from judicial work and await the outcome of the criminal prosecution.
(b)If a judge is sentenced in a criminal case he should immediately tender his resignation unless he obtains a stay of his conviction and sentence,
(c)The judge shall not insist on his right to sit on the bench till he is cleared of the charges by a court.
The Judgement was passed on a petition by justice K Veeraswamy former chief justice of the Madras high court seeking quashing of a high court order dismissing his plea to quash a complaint under prevention of corruption act.”
In his separate concurring Judgement, justice L M Sharma observed that though the president was the competent authority to grant sanction to launch proceedings against a judge, the chief justice will have to be consulted in the matter and steps taken in accordance with his advice,
The judge further observed that if the executive follows this rule strictly a further protection from harassment of the judges by uncalled for an unjustified criminal prosecution shall be available.
But in my view such a binding direction cannot be issued by this court on the basis of provisions of the constitution and the prevention of corruption act”, Mr Justice Sharma said.
While dismissing the appeal of justice Veeraswamy against an order of the Madras high court the bench directed that the case under the prevention of corruption act proceed as per law.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 2, 1991
