Parliamentary panel resents judges' "unwarranted" comments

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) A parliamentary panel examining a
Bill on judicial accountability is understood to have
recommended that judges should "restrain" themselves from
making "unwarranted comments" against other constitutional
bodies or persons in courts and favoured bringing such
behaviour of judges within the purview of judicial standards.
Terming such remarks by judges as "unfortunate", the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice and
Personnel looking into the Judicial Standards and
Accountability Bill, 2010, is learnt to have recommended that
"there is a need to bring such behaviour of judges within the
purview of judicial standards".
The Committee is likely to table its recommendations to
both Houses of Parliament Tuesday.
"The Committee feels that Clause 3 (2) (f) should be
expanded by specifically mentioning that judges should
restrain themselves from making unwarranted comments against
other constitutional/statutory bodies/institutions/persons in
open court while hearing cases," the committee is understood
to have said.
The Committee has also suggested inclusion of two
non-judicial members as part of the proposed National Judicial
Oversight Committee authorised to initiate probe into
allegations of corruption against senior judges.
The Committee in its report is learnt to have recommended
inclusion of one Member of Parliament(MP) each from Lok
Sabha(Lower House of Indian Parliament) and Rajya Sabha(Upper
House of Indian Parliament) in the National Judicial Oversight
Committee.