Judiciary: code of ethics not enough

APROPOS of the editorial “Lakshman rekha for judges” (December 8), Chief Justice of India (CJI) A.S. Anand has rightly stressed the need for accountability to the people on the part of every holder of public office. It becomes all the more imperative for those who have to sit in judgement over the conduct of others.

In the recent past many judges had figured in public controversies not so much for their verdicts as for their conduct outside courts. Perhaps it was in this light of the worsening situation that a proposal had been made by the former CJI, Justice J.C. Verma, to bind them to a code of conduct which should have been implicit and mandatory in the first place for them to follow on their own. Happily, the same has been framed and adopted during the tenure of the present CJI.

An honest and independent judiciary is the highest possession that a democracy has. The higher judiciary is one of the few national institutions in which the Indian citizen continues to place abundant faith. If the faith is not to be obliterated the country should evolve clearly defined guidelines to eliminate the extraneous factors in its functioning.

In the early days of our Independence we were fully satisfied with the system of justice. Then we began to hear about pressures, partiality and even corruption at lower levels and doubts were expressed about the purity of our justice. Then came congestion, mountains of pending cases to which the CJI draws pointed attention. If justice gets delayed the citizen’s faith in the credibility of courts will wane.

Things cannot improve by the implementation of a code of ethics for judges. There are a number of other reasons for the decline of our judicial practices for which the powers that be are squarely accountable. We are paying the price for the suppression of judges, for unjustified transfers, for unfair selections and postings, for out-of-turn promotions or for rewarding sycophancy.

We have neglected the requirements of the judiciary, kept them on low wages and perks and denied them facilities, even basic ones like court rooms. Then how can we get men of integrity and make justice an inviolable tradition of the land?

Mr Justice Krishna Ayer’s suggestion for the setting up of a commission to look into the complaints and grievances of the judges deserves serious and urgent consideration.

K.M. VASHISHT
Mansa

Lies and statistics

This is with reference to “Truth and statistics” in The Tribune of November 25. Someone once rightly said, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”.

Statistics are a useful tool, if knowledgeably used. Otherwise these can be dangerously and grossly misleading, even downright false. These are rather like a knife. What the instrument does depends entirely on whether it is a surgeon who wields it or a brute, and how.

Statistics can be as much concealing as they can be revealing. Someone put it more succinctly: “Statistics is like a bikini suit. What is revealed is statistics. What it conceals is vital”.

VIVEK KHANNA
Panchkula

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Plight of college teachers

The news report “College staff sans wages for 5 months” (The Tribune, Dec 12) was painful. It is indeed unfortunate that teachers and other employees working in affiliated and aided colleges continue to suffer not only due to the high-handedness of private managements but also due to the lackadaisical attitude of the governments concerned and the university authorities. Private college teachers cannot be treated as bonded labour, and in the matter of their service conditions they cannot be discriminated against their counterparts working in government colleges.

In private colleges, public money paid as government aid plays a major role in the control, maintenance and working of these educational institutions. The aided institutions discharge their public function by way of imparting education to students. They are subject to the statutory rules and regulations of the affiliating university.

Their activities are closely supervised by the university and government authorities. Employment in such institutions, therefore, is not devoid of any public character.

So are the service conditions of the academic staff. When the university takes a decision regarding their pay scales, it will be binding on the government and the management. The service conditions of the academic staff are, therefore, not purely of a private character. It has super-aided protection by a university decision creating a legal-right-duty relationship between the staff and the management.

Surprisingly, many private colleges in Haryana are functioning without validly constituted governing bodies under the Haryana Affiliated Colleges Security of Service Act, 1979, which has the overriding effect. The government and the university authorities are silent spectators to this blatant violation by these erring colleges.

It is a settled principle that when the Act prescribes a particular body to exercise a power, it must be exercised only by that body. It cannot be exercised by others unless it is delegated and the law must also provide for such delegation.

ANIL BHATIA
Hisar

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Punjab pensioners’ case

For the purpose of determining the average emoluments of those Central Government employees who had opted for the revised pay scales as recommended by the Fifth Central Pay Commission and retired within 10 months from the appointed day, the basic pay plus actual DA and the first and second instalments of IR during the first 10 months had been taken into account. This was done for the revision and fixing of pension by the Central Government in deviation of the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission.

The same formula had been adopted by the Punjab Government in the case of its employees while revising their pay scales effective from 1-1-1996. Under this formula the Central/state government employees who retired between January 1 and September 30, 1996, stood discriminated against and put to a loss in the matter of pension as compared to those who retired before January 1, 1996, and after September 30, 1996.

Now the Central Government has modified the formula in accordance with the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission and directed its pension sanctioning authorities to revise suo motu the pensions of those who retired during the period from January 1 to September 30, 1996, without calling for fresh applications from the government servants concerned by taking into account DA upto Consumer Price Index (CPI) level 1510 as on January 1, 1996, instead of the actual DA drawn during the period for which pay was drawn in the pre-revised scale plus the notional increase in basic pay by applying the fitment benefit of 40 per cent to bring the effected pensioners on a par with pre-1996 and post -1996 retirees.

The Punjab Government should immediately remove the disparity by extending the same benefit to the corresponding category of its pensioners.

J.S. DHILLON
Patiala

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Rural banks: unfair attitude

I read with interest the news-item “Indira Gandhi Prize for Dr Yunus” (November 19). The award has been given to Dr Muhammed Yunus, the Founder-Chairman of Gramin Bank, Dhaka, for his invaluable contribution to the methodology of “abolishing poverty in the developing world”.

But what is the policy of the Government of India towards the employees working in the 196 Gramin banks in our country? They have been denied a wage revision as per the sixth bipartite settlement in the banking industry. The government has been dilly-dallying the revision for the last many years.

This shows the government’s discriminatory attitude. While the employees of commercial banks working in the rural branches get a better salary and perks, those working in the Gramin banks are denied these benefits. The government should, without any delay, remove this anomaly and release the benefits of wage revision to the employees of regional rural banks.

DWARKA DASS
Kainaur (Ropar)