The former Judge of Supreme Court Markandey Katju had claimed that 50 Percent Of higher judiciary Is corrupt. He strongly criticize the corruption in Indian Judiciary. In a function organized by lawyers he said that “My assessment is that 50% of the higher judiciary has become corrupt. I was targeted by former chief justice RM Lodha for my views. Let it all be investigated. SC judges are annoyed. But I am not bothered. The CJI must clean up the judiciary first before cleaning up other bodies. Gandhi was a British agent who propagated Hindu religion. He was not the Father of the Nation. It was Akbar who was the real father of the nation… It’s nonsense to say that Gandhi gave us freedom. Gandhi, in fact, changed the path of the freedom struggle laid down by freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh. Subhas Chandra Bose became overambitious. He kept hobnobbing with Hitler. But Hitler did not show any interest in him. Politicians of the country should have been shot long ago. A majority of them are rogues and rascals.”
He also added that “thought that there is separation of powers in the Constitution. But since the Supreme Court evidently thinks otherwise, and believes it can also perform legislative and executive functions, I recommend to the Parliament, the state legislatures, and the executive, to hand over all their functions to the judiciary, and let them run the country.”
Most of the statements of Ex SC Judge Markandey Katju are controversial. But we can find certain true facts in it. One of the famous Indian Jurist and one of the experienced lawyers in India, Fali S Nariman in his book The State of The Nation had quoted that “In India, the higher judiciary has inherent (and almost unbridled) powers of contempt — even beyond the laws enacted by Parliament. And for that reason, the media and the whole lot of information-seeking agencies — not sure of how contempt law will be interpreted — are tight-lipped. No one dares to come out with what they believe to be the facts (in any matter pertaining to judges or administration of justice) even though the law (amending the Contempt of Courts Act 1971) now permits ‘justification by truth’ as a valid defence.
But let a complaint be made even by a responsible individual against a reputedly corrupt judge in higher judiciary, and no newspaper will publish it. Give the newspaper as much proof or evidence as you will — it will still not publish anything! Regrettably — with a few notable exceptions — the fraternity of justices in the higher judiciary in India tend to stick together when anyone speaks of any wrongdoing about one of them — alas, even when some of its members themselves entertain a shrewd suspicion of some wrongdoing. There pervades, in higher echelons of judiciary, what I would characterise as spirit of trade unionism. Trade unionism amongst lawyers is different. It is also a closed shop but there are many leaks! One instance of wrongdoing about a colleague at the Bar and dozen other ‘lawyer friends’ will spread the word about more such wrongdoings! No, the trade unionism of lawyers is just no match to the trade unionism of judges. The latter close their ranks when one of their own is involved.”
Known for his controversial statements, justice Markandey Katju (retd), a former judge of the Supreme Court (SC), claimed here on Monday that 50% of the higher judiciary consisting of SC and high court judges was corrupt.
Katju, a former chairman of the Press Council of India, was addressing lawyers at the Punjab and Haryana high court during a function organised by the Lawyers for Democracy, a young lawyers’ group, to mark Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s birth anniversary.
“My assessment is that 50% of the higher judiciary has become corrupt,” Katju said, while claiming that he had got a dossier on Chief Justice of India HL Dattu’s alleged properties and given it to then law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and others, but to no avail.
“I was targeted by former chief justice RM Lodha for my views. Let it all be investigated. SC judges are annoyed. But I am not bothered…,” Katju said. He also slammed the trend of judges and their relatives practising in the same court.
Katju, who was twice interrupted by some lawyers sitting in the Bar room, did not spare even Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose. At least 10 times during his one-and-a-half-hour speech, he termed Gandhi as a “fraud” and blamed him for the Hindu-Muslim divide during the freedom struggle. “He (Gandhi) was a British agent who propagated Hindu religion. He was not the Father of the Nation. It was Akbar who was the real father of the nation… It’s nonsense to say that Gandhi gave us freedom. Gandhi, in fact, changed the path of the freedom struggle laid down by freedom fighters such as Bhagat Singh,” Katju said.
On Bose, the former judge said, “He became overambitious. He kept hobnobbing with Hitler. But Hitler did not show any interest in him.”
Talking about politicians of the country, he said, “They should have been shot long ago. A majority of them are rogues and rascals,” while claiming that the entire system had collapsed and he saw a revolt in the near future.
Meanwhile, Katju asked the Punjab and Haryana high court Bar Association to approach the governments of both states on the issue of conducting court proceedings in Hindi and Punjabi. “If they do not agree, launch an agitation,” he said, giving examples of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, where court proceedings are conducted in Hindi. However, he said lawyers should have the option of choosing a language.
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