Bar Council of India’s survey on judicial "corruption" figures in apex court

New Delhi: A survey reportedly being conducted by the Bar Council of India (BCI) on alleged corruption in judiciary figured in the supreme court on Friday with an advocate seeking contempt proceedings against the regulatory body. "We are always at the receiving end," a bench headed by chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, said in an oral observation, when counsel V B Joshi mentioned the matter at the fag end of the day''s proceedings. The court did not evince interest in the initial application filed by the advocate seeking contempt action against BCI for carrying out the survey. When Joshi sought permission of the court to file a writ petition for initiating contempt proceedings against the BCI chairman and other members of the body, the bench said the counsel required no such permission for filing the same. "Why do you need our permission for filing a writ petition," the bench told the counsel, while rising for the day. Following this the counsel said he would formally be filing a petition on Monday. Joshi had raised the issue on the basis of a newspaper report which had quoted the BCI chairman saying that the regulatory body was in the process of eliciting views of the various state bar councils and bar association to understand the depth of corruption allegedly prevalent in the judiciary.
(Ashwini Kumar)
Publication Date 2/5/2008 9:33:31 PM(IST)
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