Reported By:
| Edited By: |Source: DNA |Updated: Feb 20, 2016, 06:40 AM IST
Stormy petrel
The flawed procedure for removal of higher court judges has been exposed by the antics of Justice CS Karnan of the Madras high court. Transferred to the Calcutta high court as a disciplinary measure, Karnan stayed the transfer order of the Chief Justice of India TS Thakur. In his five-year-long tenure as permanent judge, Karnan has acted in gross disregard of judicial impropriety several times. He has threatened to invoke the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against his colleagues on the Madras Bench and even shot off letters alleging discrimination to the National Commission for SC/ST. He had also accused the chief justice of the Madras HC SK Kaul of caste discrimination in apportioning judicial work. Though impeachment is the only provision available for removing high court and supreme court judges, the difficulty of garnering two-thirds majority of those present and voting, has led to the provision being sparingly used. This is despite many judges in high courts facing allegations of corruption, sexual harassment, and misbehaviour. Perhaps, it is time to enact the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill which proposes alternate processes for removal of judges.
Trumping the Pope
By choosing to use a religious idiom to flag his support for immigration reform, Pope Francis has only helped to mirror the divide in the United States over the issue. Francis thrust himself into the US presidential elections by taking a swipe at Republican candidate Donald Trump’s controversial plan to build a wall between the US and Mexico. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian. This is not the gospel,” Francis said. The criticism by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church has come at a time when Trump’s Republican challengers are taking potshots at his religious convictions, which they believe he does not actually possess. The combative Trump has hit back saying that no leader, especially a religious leader, has a right to question another person’s faith. And for good measure, Trump also threw in some fear-mongering about an ISIS attack on Vatican, to let Francis know why he should be US president. Clearly, the Pope’s strategy of couching the immigration issue in religious terms has backfired. Nevertheless, considering Trump’s bluster, it is unlikely that he would have paid heed even to an appeal to his moral or humanistic instincts.
Bassi dumped
After failing to control mob violence at Delhi’s Patiala House Court this week, Delhi police commissioner BS Bassi has earned a fitting rebuff after the central government dropped him from its panel of Information Commissioner candidates. The leader of the opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, who is part of the selection committee, also comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and finance minister Arun Jaitley, had announced his intent to sign a dissent note if his objection to Bassi was overruled. The precedent of PJ Thomas, who was removed as chief vigilance commissioner by the Supreme Court after the then leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj submitted a dissent note, appears to have prompted the government’s decision. Nevertheless, the government must be applauded for this gesture. As head of the police force in the city, the blame for the police inaction at the court complex lies with Bassi alone. By dropping Bassi, the central government has accepted, even in an implicit manner, the principle of command responsibility.
