Supreme Court Asserts No Judge Is Above The Law, ETLegalWorld

The bench said the CJI, as the leader of the judiciary, has a duty to keep the justice delivery system pure, clean and unpolluted. Rejecting Justice Varma’s argument that the CJI should have left it to Parliament’s wisdom to take action, the bench said, “It is unreasonable to even think that despite an incident of the present nature, the CJI would wait for Parliament to take action.”

“The CJI, upon being informed of a judge’s remissness, does have the authority – moral, ethical and legal – to take such necessary action as is warranted to keep institutional integrity intact. Any adverse impact on the credibility of the institution could prove dear,” it said, adding that no judge, be it in trial courts, HCs or in the SC, is above the law.

SC also scotched attempts by Justice Varma to fault the process of inquiry and the CJI’s decision in not giving him a personal hearing prior to recommending his removal. It said, “The CJI has scrupulously followed the in-house procedure, which does not envisage a hearing to be given to the judge under probe after he has expressed his inability to resign or voluntarily retire.”

Writing the 57-page judgment that surgically resected the core of argument Sibal had made to shield the judge’s intriguing behaviour post-discovery of sacks of burning cash at his official residence in Lutyens’ Delhi on March 14 night and his participation in the inquiry without protest, Justice Datta said, “Justice Varma’s conduct does not inspire much confidence for us to entertain the writ petition.”>