nothing moves without money... is the judiciary clean?

“It is very unfortunate that there is no control over corruption in the country. There is rampant corruption particularly in the department of Income Tax, Sales Tax and Excise Department. Nothing moves without money,” a Bench of Justices Markandeya Katju and T. S. Thakur said.

This was the first line of a news report in papers of 10th October about a case before the Supreme Court. Such observations are often heard from the higher judiciary [Supreme and High Courts] now and then. They are ‘learned’ people and what they are saying must be true. However what happens to them when an effort is made to make their affairs transparent and make them accountable? Remember the objection of the previous Chief Justice of India to the recent Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, and judges’ giving specious arguments how such a bill will do no good but erode judicial independence? Earlier, when the topmost judges of the country [barring a few] fought with the Central Information Commission on disclosing their wealth.

If you were to count the right things that the successive Union Governments have done in recent years, you would be able to count them on finger-tips. One such thing, to me, is the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill. It is a well-thought of bill, taking care of fictitious and malicious complaints and has enough provisions to give the accused opportunity to defend himself. In any case, the draft bill will go through a long process before becoming an Act and misgivings about its wrong use can be addressed in this process. However, we need such an Act and judges should welcome it. If they are not welcoming, they are only proving what people think about their integrity [click here for a survey on this and Shanti Bhushan's take on judiciary ].