CJI's Office Received 8630 Complaints Against Sitting Judges In Last 10 Years : Law Ministry

The office of the Chief Justice of India has received 8, 630 complaints against the sitting judges in the last ten years, as per the latest data shared in the Lok Sabha today.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's Matheswaran VS has asked the Minister of Law and Justice Arjum Ram Meghwal whether there is any mechanism whereby the Supreme Court maintain any record of complaints regarding corruption, sexual misconduct or other serious impropriety received against judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court. If so, then the data on complaints received by the Supreme Court in the last 10 years. 

It was also asked whether the Government has any other mechanism apart from the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System(CPGRAMS) to collect complaints against judges and whether it proposes to issue guidelines to ensure such complaints are systematically recorded and monitored to ensure accountability. 

Answering the question, Meghwal said that the Chief Justice of India receives the complaint against sitting judges of the Supreme Court through the Court's 'In-house procedure'. Similarly, the Chief Justice of the High Court is competent to receive complaints against the sitting judges of the concerned High Court. 

He stated that accountability in the higher judiciary is maintained through "in-house mechanism". He added that the Supreme Court, in its full Court meeting on 7th May, 1997, adopted two Resolutions namely (i) "The Restatement of Values of Judicial Life" which lays down certain judicial standards and principles to be observed and followed by the Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts (ii) "in-house procedure‟ for taking suitable remedial action against judges who do not follow universally accepted values of Judicial life including those included in the Restatement of Values of Judicial life.

Complaints against members of the higher judiciary received through the government portal CPGRAMS or any other form are forwarded to the CJI or the Chief Justice of the respective High Court. 

Meghwal then tabled the information received from the Supreme Court on complaints received in the office of the CJI, as per which the highest number of complaints was received in 2024 during the tenure of former CJI Dr DY Chandrachud and former CJI Sanjiv Khanna.

In 2016, similar questions were asked in the Lok Sabha, and in reply, the then Minister of Law and Justice had said that in order to make the judiciary more transparent, the Bill titled “Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill” was moved by the Government in the previous Lok Sabha. However, the Bill could not be passed due to the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha.

In January, the Supreme Court issued directions on how the High Court should deal with complaints against judicial officers of the district judiciary.