Judges Accountability bill

Judges accountability bill a long way off TIMES NEWS NETWORK New Delhi: It will be a long haul before the Judges Standards and Accountability Bill gets finalised. Law ministry sources said, "The bill has not yet taken off. The drafting is being done more by law officers -- attorney general, solicitor general. There are many versions." Sources also pointed out that though law minister Veerappa Moily was promising that the bill would be tabled in the winter session of Parliament, even the Cabinet note was not ready. "There has been no movement in the ministry on the bill," a source said, pointing out that in the monsoon session, when Moily had to withdraw his bill, he promised to consult the Opposition. "But nothing has happened so far," he said. Apart from delay in drafting, sources said, the main reason the bill was not getting priority was because the higher judiciary was not taken into confidence. Here also there are two views. While a section within the ministry is clear that judiciary should not be consulted, Moily himself does not want to take the risk. "Supreme Court is never going to approve of any legislation that seeks to put a check on higher judiciary. Many versions of the bill have been circulated to SC without any consensus. UPA-I spent five years discussing this legislation," a source said. The issue of consulting higher judiciary, sources said, was getting further confounded by contrasting views on whether Judges Inquiry Act, 1968 should be repealed or not. Again, a dominant view is that the existing Act should be given more teeth. Ministry sources said the bill had no immediate future. "Government's flip-flop on Justice Dinakaran issue is further proof that promise of a new law is more for public consumption," a source said.