India upper house of parliament impeaches high court judge News
India upper house of parliament impeaches high court judge
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[JURIST] After a day’s deliberation, the Council of States [official website], India’s upper house of parliament voted 189 – 17 on Thursday to impeach [daily bulletin, PDF] Justice Soumitra Sen [official profile], a justice of the Calcutta High Court [official website] accused of embezzling funds. Impeachment hearings began [JURIST report] Wednesday. Sen was charged with misappropriation of funds and misrepresentation of facts. Sen, in his capacity as justice, was assigned to sell an inventory of rejected goods from two civil suits, with the proceeds going back toward the payment of the judgment in one case, and disbursed to workers as back payments in another. Sen was to keep five percent for himself and had absolute control over all bank accounts connected to the cases. Parties to the cases requested information from Sen after not receiving their funds, which he ignored. Eventually, Sen withdrew all the money from the accounts and closed them, without explanation to the courts. Sen’s case will now be sent to the House of the People [official website], India’s lower house, for identical proceedings. They are expected to hear arguments next week [The Hindu report].

If impeached, Sen will be the first sitting high judge to be removed from office in Indian history, and it is only the second impeachment proceeding ever attempted. President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil [official website] announced in February that the government will work to eradicate corruption [JURIST report]. The government recently created a group of ministers charged with streamlining the judicial system [Indian Express report], particularly working to expedite corruption cases brought against civil servants suspected of corruption and to amend current laws to facilitate bringing claims against public servants. Singh called for the establishment of special courts [JURIST report] to deal only with corruption charges, telling a convention of high-ranking justices and government ministers that, “apart from pendency and delayed justice, corruption is another challenge we face both in government and the judiciary.” Singh said addressing these problems would increases both domestic and foreign confidence in the court system. India’s judiciary was analyzed in the FORUM post India and Pakistan: A Tale of Judicial Appointments [JURIST op-ed] by guest columnist Shubhankar Dam [official profile] of the Singapore Management University School of Law [official website].