Harikrishna Pramod and Arunima discuss about the legislative and judicial trends in India.
Abstract
The architects of the Constitution of India would not have foreseen that within 50 years of the framing of the Constitution, the Indian Judiciary would emerge as the most powerful institution of the State. However, in recent times, there have been several allegations of corruption in the higher judiciary and serious doubts have been cast on the existence of an accountable judicial system. Given the pivotal role that the Indian Judiciary plays today, stemming out corruption from it has become an agenda of extreme priority in order to ensure continued confidence in the institution of courts. It has been continuously established that there is no basis for excluding accountability of the judges, since, like the members of the Executive and the Legislature, power in them too has been vested in trust. However, before taking concrete steps in that direction, it would be imperative to look at the past efforts that have been made by the organs of the State to ensure that the high standards of judicial conduct are maintained. The article seeks to put forth an encompassing overview of significant endeavours by the Legislature and the Judiciary to ensure the accountability of the judicial institution as well as the individual accountability of each judge.