CJI Ranjan Gogoi bets on traditional ways to improve justice delivery system

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi is attempting to revive age-old traditions and conventions of the judiciary to check judiciary indiscipline, restore work culture and reduce the number of pending cases.

But without disciplinary powers, the CJI may find it difficult to instil better work ethics among fellow judges, experts say.

Indiscipline is rampant among judges, they say. Some judges do not turn up on time, some wrap up hearings early and leave though the official timings of the court are from 10.30 to 4 with an hour’s lunch break in between, and some do not read their files before coming to court. In a bid to check the slide, Gogoi has suggested that judges do not take leave on working days except for medical emergencies, and urged them to refrain from taking LTC (leave travel concession) on working days.


All these are old traditions, a retired Supreme Court judge told ET on the condition of anonymity. The convention was that no judge took leave on a working day. Leaves could be encashed at the end of the year up to a limit, the person said. Neither did judges go on LTC on working days.

Judges sat in court from 10.30 to 4. As a result, the number of pending cases were low, the person said. He said the benches must not only sit at a fixed time, but get up at fixed times.

Any breaks must be scheduled for the benefit of lawyers and litigants alike.

If these simple traditions had been followed, things would not have been as bad as they are today, he said. To instil better work ethics, the CJI has requested High Court Chief Justices to draw their attention to defiance of these traditions so that judicial work can be withdrawn from the errant.

But, legal experts say the CJI does not have the power to withdraw work to deal with such deviant behaviour.

Under the existing mechanism the only punishment for a judge is impeachment on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

There is nothing short of impeachment to deal with indiscipline among judges. Even that is a process in the political realm, former CJI VN Khare said.Khare, who had his hands full as CJI dealing with a full-blown strike by judges in the Punjab and Haryana and persuading Justices Arun Madan and Shameet Mukherjee to step down, said the CJI should have the power to suspend erring judges.

As of now, the CJI as the master of the roster could hold back work from any judge. An in-house mechanism evolved by the Supreme Court in consultation with High Court Chief Justices has its limitations as it is only morally binding on the judges.

As per this mechanism — notified in January 2015, almost 15 years after it was adopted — the CJI will look into complaints against judges if any. In cases he deems fit, he will constitute a three-judge committee to examine the charges. If the judge is found guilty, the CJI may seek his termination or ask him to quit. The judge is morally bound to act as directed. The CJI can also recommend that the judge be impeached.

During his tenure, Khare had suggested that that the CJI or a collegium of senior judges be empowered to deal with corruption and indiscipline. He suggested that the Constitution be amended to give the CJI power of superintendence over High Courts.

Currently only the High Courts have the power of superintendence over subordinate courts. Khare’s successor R C Lahoti was all for using the CJI’s moral authority as the head of the judicial family to deal immediately with errant judges before things went out of control. Former Supreme Court Judge Asok Kumar Ganguly backed this position. He said the CJI should use his moral stature to withdraw work. He cited two instances in which CJs of High Courts Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Chittatosh Mukerjee had withdrawn work from errant judges. Both these cases dealt with corruption.

The CJI, Ganguly said, must periodically seek a list of pending judgements from each court. Any case that hasn’t been decided within six months must be assigned to other judges, he said. No new work be allotted to a judge before he finishes his pending wok, he said.