New Delhi:
There have been many occasions in India in the history of 75 years when the judiciary has been accused of corruption. Recently, the incident of fire at the government residence of Delhi High Court Judge Justice Yashwant Verma once again brought the issue into the headlines. The news of the fire brigade getting a huge amount of cash from his house created a ruckus across the country while extinguishing the fire. After this incident, the Supreme Court Collegium decided to transfer Justice Verma to his original court, Allahabad High Court, and now Chief Justice Sanjeev Khanna has formed a three -member committee to investigate against him. This is not the first time that the judges have been accused of corruption. Let’s know about some 5 cases in which the judges are accused of corruption.
- The first example is from 2009, when Justice Nirmal Yadav, Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court, was accused of taking a bribe of Rs 15 lakh. In this case, a lawyer claimed that he accidentally sent the amount of bribe to the wrong judge’s house, after which the scam was exposed.
- Chief Justice of Madras High Court P.D. Dinakaran was accused of illegal land acquisition and property accumulation in Tamil Nadu. 16 complaints were filed against him, after which the Supreme Court collegium stopped his promotion in the Supreme Court. He resigned in 2011 under pressure from investigation.
- The third example is from 2017, when Calcutta High Court Judge Justice C.S. Karnan made serious allegations of corruption against many judges of the Supreme Court. A contempt case was lodged against him, and he was imprisoned for six months.
- The fourth case is of 2018, when four senior judges of the Supreme Court held a press conference and accused Chief Justice Deepak Mishra of distributing the case arbitrarily and promoting corruption. This was an unprecedented incident in the history of the Indian judiciary.
- The fifth example is from 2021, when a retired judge of the Bombay High Court was accused of giving decisions with a bribe, although the matter went on hold due to lack of investigation.
The Justice Verma case has re -crushed these old wounds. Experts say that lack of accountability in the judiciary and lack of transparency promotes these problems. Impeachment against judges is the only constitutional remedy, but it has not been successfully used till now.
‘Boots of half -baked notes are not mine …’
Judge Yashwant Verma says that the room where the bundles of notes were found are different from their main residence and many people use it. In a long response to the alleged seizures of cash to Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Devendra Kumar Upadhyay, Justice Verma said that a fire broke out in the store room near the staff quarter of his official residence in Delhi on the day of Holi late on March 14. The judge wrote, ‘This room was generally used to keep goods like old furniture, bottles, crockery, mattresses, carpets, old speakers, gardening equipment and CPWD (Central Public Works Department) content. This room is open and can be entered in the front gate as well as the back door of the staff quarters. It is different from the main residence and certainly not my home room, as is being told.