Judging the Judges...

                                               For representation only. Copyright of geschichteinchronologie.ch

In a series of stories that will occupy this space, the first one, titled ‘Judging the Judges’ deals with housing society scam that 82 prominent people from the judicial fraternity have indulged in, including two sitting Supreme Court judges.

A reading of this article might not necessarily help change the eroding faith in the judicial system of the country, but the authors’ intention is not the further deplete the faith as much as it is to let people know what our judges, whom we trust to uphold the law of the land are indulging in.
           Read on...
 

Judging the Judges is  a story of 82 judges from the higher judiciary violating Bye-laws of the employees house building  co-operative society, the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959 and several directions and judgements of various High Courts and the Supreme Court and availing sites from the Karnataka State Judicial Department Employees House Building Cooperative Society Limited (KSJDE HBCS).
 

A pain-staking investigation from a close source who wishes to be annonymus has provided the authors of this blog documents that show the judges' involvement (see table for the names of the judges, their designations and the violations).

The story:
 

When Corruption and abuse of office for personal gain appeared to have reached alarming proportions and  the Supreme Court has taken up a few high-profile corruption cases, which is seen as a step in the right direction, the documents available reveals more than 80 judges has been allotted residential sites by Karnataka Judicial employees House building Co-operative Society Limited, in violation of its Bye-laws.

Among the judges, there are two sitting Supreme Court Judges, Tirath Singh Thakur and H L Dattu, two retired Chief Justices of India,  M N Venkatachalaiah and S Rajendra Babu and seven retired SC judges: K Jagananath Shetty, S Mohan, former Karnataka Lokayukta N Venkatachala, G T Nanavati, Shivraj V Patil, P Venkatarama Reddi and R V Raveendran.

The list also contains, V Gopala Gowda, the sitting Chief Justice of Odisha High Court, and 10 retired chief justices of various high courts: D M Chandrashekar, V S Malimath, M Rama Jois, K A Swamy, S A Hakeem, N Y Hanumanthappa, Kumar Raja Ratnam, Subray Rama Nayak and Samindar Rudrayya Bannurmath.

Besides, it includes 14 sitting judges of the Karnataka High Court: Manjula Chellur, V G Sabhahit, N Kumar, Patil Naganath, K Bhaktavatsala, Ajit J Gunjal, Mohan Shantanagoudar, H G Ramesh, Abdul Nazeer, H N Nagamohandas, Ananda Byra Reddy, Ashok B Hinchigeri, V Jagannathan and C R Kumaraswamy.
The others are other retired judges.

While there are several violations, a separate story on which will be uploaded soon, the basic and common violations among all these judges is that they have availed sites from an employee housing society even as they are not employees of the said department. This is in violation of Clause-10 and 53 of the bye-laws of the society.

Clause 10 of the bye-laws deals with the rights of the members regarding the eligibility for allotment of sites/flats/houses and prescribes under section B that: “She/he is an employee of the judicial department in Karnataka and has put in a minimum continuous or intermittent service of five years in Karnataka.”

Further, Clause-53 that deals with allotment of sites/flats/houses/apartment and prescribes that: “…The society shall allot sites/flats/houses only to members who are eligible as per bye-law number10. A member shall produce a certificate from his employer regarding his employment and a length of service in Karnataka.”
 

But according to Articles 124 (2) and 217 of the Constitution Supreme Court and High Court judges are appointed by the President by warrant under his seal and, therefore, are not employees of any particular State Government’s Judicial Department.

And speaking to the authors one of the violators, former chief justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court M Rama Jois said: “...Strictly speaking HC and SC judges cannot be employed by anybody!”

Also, a full bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Y V Chandrachud, P N Bhagawati, V R Krishaiyer, N L Untwalia and Fazalali Syed Murtaza, in the case of Union of India versus Sankalchand Himatlal Sheth and Anr notes: “…In fact, a High Court Judge has no employer: he occupies a high constitutional office which is co-ordinate with the executive and the legislature.”

Alike many judges, Jois said: “...But there was a case (Subramani versus Union of India) before the High Court of Karnataka and the petition was dismissed.” The implication derived at thereby, is that it is legal for these judges to avail sites from the society.

But, when contacted former Karnataka High Court Judge Saldana, who was one of the two judges, who passed the judgement said: “Nobody can take shelter under my judgement. The petition was dismissed because we did not have the jurisdiction.”

October 12, 1995, in the case of Subramani versus Union of India the High Court (Saldana and Baktavatsalam, the latter no more) had said: “A reading of Clause-7 of the bye-laws, in our view, by no stretch of imagination can include the judges of High Court or Supreme Court (sitting, transferred, retired). Even assuming for a moment that certain Judges have been allowed to become members of the Society, it may be an irregularity in the conduct of the business of the Society.”

Despite of this judgement which clearly specifies the allottment as irregular, and which Saldana claims to be final as the Supreme Court did not admit an SLP of this case filed before it, several judges have taken sites from the society.

                                                                             

                                                                         see the table below for more details, separate story based on different designations of the judges will follow soon. The related documents have not been uploaded fearing unauthorised use.