Judicial reforms in BJP's agenda: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: With several judges getting appointed in government panels after retirement, BJP has proposed a two-year gap before assigning them to head tribunals.

Alleging that long before judges retired, the tribunal they would head was already decided, BJP President Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said judicial reforms were in the party’s agenda, and a “cooling off” period of two years for judges before they were appointed to such panels was a part of it.

He was speaking at a programme organised by the party’s legal cell here. Gadkari had stoked a controversy last week by his comments over government “misusing” the judiciary.

“The CBI is being misused. The CBI and the judiciary are being used to blackmail opposition parties,” he had said. Later, in his address at the party conclave in Surajkund, he had stepped up his attack on Congress using CBI, but had refrained from mentioning the judiciary.

Accusing the Centre of using CBI against BJP in Gujarat and Rajasthan where its leaders were sent to jail, he warned BJP will identify CBI officers who have done wrong and will ‘hit back’.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, said he had no hesitation in supporting increase in tenure of judges or supporting pensions equal to last dawn salaries for judges.

“But this clamour for post-retirement jobs is adversely affecting impartiality of the judiciary of the country and time has come that it should come to an end,” Jaitley said.