Judicial morality

At a time when the judiciary is facing a drought of public faith and is struggling to clean its tarnished image in recent days, a morally questionable act of the Chief Justice (CJ) - appointment of his spouse to the post of section officer -- and an offence of the Supreme Court (SC) Registrar - use of a vehicle with an illegal number plate-- over a span of one week, have come out.
These acts by Chief Justice Dilip Kumar Poudel and Registrar Dr Ram Krishna Timalsena, head of the judiciary and the chief of the apex court administration respectively, have disgraced and caused irreparable damage to the esteem of the institution of the judiciary and judicial system. These acts, have further eroded public faith on the judiciary, irrespective of the intention behind the acts.

The Post regards that both the posts deserve high respect and prestige from the public. But, at the same time, the positions demand a high standard of morality in what they do. A petty act subject to moral question, by figures like the CJ and Registrar is very damaging to an institution like the judiciary whose very foundation is public faith. Such damage is irreparable. So judges and officials of the judiciary should be responsible and careful to what they do/will do to ensure that their acts do not harm the institution.
Press has been reporting the morally questionable acts in the judiciary over the last three years. But such reports have been ignored by the people in the judiciary without realization of the far-reaching effects of such activities. And such individuals were never brought to justice, and thus impunity has been encouraged in the institution. For instance, the then Chief Justice Hari Prasad Sharma delivered a political speech at an international forum in 2005, which was a breach of the code of conduct for judges. But Sharma was never punished. This kind of impunity must end to make our judiciary a temple of justice which people revere.

History has recorded damaging activities, one after another, by people in the judiciary over the last three years. But the judiciary has failed to use every correction opportunity in the past. Our judiciary never learnt a lesson from the infamous Robinson scandal. It could have been used as an opportunity to correct the existing maladies in the judiciary. But that did not happen. Now the judiciary should realize that no one, but the people in the judiciary, are responsible for earning damage and disgrace to the institution. It is high time the judiciary end impunity of all sorts within itself and make the institution respectable and morally clean.