High officials should not be given assignments post retirement

Former Chief Justice of India J S Verma has pleaded that those holding constitutional posts like Election Commissioner or Supreme Court judges should not be given post-retirement assignments by the government at least for the next 10 years.





The former CJI in Walk the Talk show on a TV channel, anchored by Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, also disapproved a former chief election commissioner joining a political party after retirement and becoming a minister in the Union Cabinet.





Justice Verma, who was the CJI in 1997-98, without taking name said he did not like the conduct of an ex-CJI who tried to secure nomination from a political party to become the President of India.





Justice Verma who dealt with Hawala case in which senior politicians of various political parties were the suspects, is also against political use of the CBI and also cited a case pending in the Supreme Court in which the CBI has taken several U-turns Although he did not name the case, the reference was obviously to the Disproportionate Asset case against former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in which the CBI has come under heavy fire from the Supreme Court for acting like a tool in the hands of the government.





Justice Verma who was also the head of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for a term of five years after retirement has also been pleading for the disclosure of assets by the judges, including the SC judges and had got faster resolution by the full SC to this effect when he was the CJI.





The present CJI Justice K G Balakrishnan is, however, opposed to the idea of judges revealing their assets.





Justice verma whose Walk the Talk interview was telecast last night by a private news channel, opposed high officials holding constitutional posts getting government assignments after retirement because, he felt such assignments adversely affect their independence and impartial functioning.





It was a bench headed by him as CJI that led to one-member Election Commission of India becoming multi-member with Chief Election Commissioner as its head, along with two Election Commissioners.





Mr T N Seshan was the CEC when Justice Verma was the CJI and he passed number of strictures against Mr Seshan.





BJPs prime ministerial candidate L K Advani, former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana and several other political leaders were accused in the Hawala case, though later most of the political leaders were acquitted.