184
an erring Judge; change their workload to different
cases,
relieve
them
of
all
judicial
works,
or
transfer to another High Court. The first two ways
can be done by the Chief Justice in charge of the
High Court, while the last requires the cooperation
of the government. There is no way for the public (or
even the Judge) to know why a Judge might have been
‘penalised’ this way and what behaviour crossed the
line. There also remains a gap in severity between
these measures and impeachment.
The controversy surrounding Karnan is part of a
larger problem in the judiciary rather than a one-off
problem. Late in 2016, the Supreme Court initiated
contempt
proceedings
Markandey
Katju
for
against
his
former
ill-thought-out
SC
Judge
comments
against Judges. Multiple Judges of the High Courts
and
the
Supreme
Court
have
faced
accusations
of
sexual harassment. Nirmal Yadav of the Punjab and
Haryana High Court also faced charges framed by a CBI
court for allegedly receiving a bribe as a sitting
Judge in 2008.
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