A consultation here on Sunday threw up differences on bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, being formulated by a 10-member joint drafting committee that includes five members from civil society. The round table, dominated by eminent judges and lawyers, however, excused higher Judiciary from the ambit of the proposed Bill and favoured a “separate mechanism” to make High Court and Supreme Court judges accountable for misconduct. “When...

The first public consultation on the Lokpal Bill failed to reach a consensus on whether the office of the Prime Minister should be under the purview of the corruption watchdog but agreed that a different mechanism needed to be evolved for the Judiciary in the nature of the National Judicial Commission. The day-long consultation at the India International Centre was attended by senior judicial officials of the country, top legal luminaries...

In a major shift from its earlier position, the law ministry has decided to lift the veil of secrecy on complaints received against judges of the Supreme Court and high courts if a complainant has no objection making his or her name public. The ministry’s decision to provide complaints of corruption and misconduct against the members of higher Judiciary under the Right to Information (RTI) Act follows a direction from...

Home minister P Chidambaram on Saturday termed the higher Judiciary "over ambitious" but applauded it for its activism which "enlarged the ambit of fundamental rights" of citizens. Delivering the inaugural K N Katju memorial lecture on 'What ails the Indian Judiciary', he said that like any other institution that has reached a ripe and old age, the Judiciary is under stress. ``Another cause of stress is that the Judiciary, especially the higher...

Ruling on RTI activist's plea No abrogation of independence of Judiciary or interference in judicial proceedings Furnish details of correspondence between Balakrishnan and Ministry on Dinakaran The Central Information Commission has directed the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO), Supreme Court, to furnish information on the action taken by the court Registry pursuant to the November 26, 2010 orders for constitution of a larger Bench to hear cases on declaration of assets by judges. The...