Quo Vadis, Your Honour? It is time to fix the judicial conduct crisis before it is too late
Persistent regulatory failures and continued inactions of the judicial leadership risk inviting heavy-handed and politically motivated reforms that could permanently compromise judicial autonomy under the guise of reform, writes Shivaraj Huchhanavar.
Dr Shivaraj Huchhanavar
Published on: 9 January 2025, 11:57 am
WHILE the current impeachment motion against Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav has captured public attention, it merely symptomises a deeper institutional malaise.
Unfortunately, this is neither the first nor the last of such judicial conduct-related controversies. The judiciary has had more than a fair share of such controversies in recent years. However, whenever such controversies unfold, public discourse often fixates on individual controversies and their immediate ramifications, overlooking the fundamental regulatory vacuum that enables such misconduct to persist.
The absence of robust accountability mechanisms has created a permissive environment where judicial impropriety, political and ideological partisanship, and, in some cases, corruption flourish unchecked. Therefore, the judicial conduct crisis that we are witnessing stems not from isolated incidents but from systemic failures in judicial oversight— a problem that demands urgent structural reforms rather than mere case-by-case firefighting, as we can see unfold in the case of Justice Yadav.
In this context, this piece foregrounds some of the systemic flaws that plague the judicial conduct regulation in India and offers recommendations for reform, stressing that implementing some of these longstanding recommendations remains critically overdue.
Judges are held to higher standards; they are expected to be independent and impartial and perform their duties with integrity and competence.
The backdrop
The life of a judge is indeed subject to scrutiny all the time. Judges are held to higher standards; they are expected to be independent and impartial and perform their duties with integrity and competence. Judges should adhere to these higher standards even if they are not carrying out their judicial functions: they cannot have two standards, one in the court and another outside the court.
