New Delhi:
It's a bill that has been hanging fire for a long time. And once again, the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill - that promises to clean up the higher judiciary of the country - is back to the drawing board.
NDTV has learnt that the Oversight Committee to be set up under the proposed law will no longer be headed by the Vice President of India as had been decided earlier.
The government has now decided that a former Chief Justice of India (CJI) will head the panel.
According to sources, several eminent jurists have pointed out that there would be a conflict of interest if the Vice President were to head the Oversight Committee because as ex-officio Chairman of the Rajya Sabha he would also preside over any impeachment motion against a judge.
The same person, they say, can't be judge and prosecutor.
But though the bill is now being redrafted to have a retired Chief Justice of India as its head, many still have reservations.
"Ideally, the Oversight Committee should not have retired judges because retired judges, particularly retired Chief Justices, may have played a role in appointing those very judges whose conduct has come into question. There are a large number of completely independent people who're neither in the government nor in the judiciary. They could be academics and public figures. The problem is the government does not hold public consultations on such bills," said Prashant Bhushan, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court.
The current system allows only sitting judges to probe complaints against fellow judges, and is often accused of being shrouded in secrecy. And while the new law could change that, it remains to be seen how soon the government will introduce the bill in Parliament.