THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary- February 1, 2018 - Topic 1

For a clean judiciary

The importance of in-house mechanisms

With an in-house committee concluding that a judge of the Allahabad High Court had committed judicial impropriety serious enough to warrant his removal, the subject of corruption in the higher judiciary is in the news. Justice Shri Narayan Shukla had come under adverse notice before a Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra last year. 

The Bench had found he had violated a restraining order from the apex court by allowing the GCRG Memorial Trust, Lucknow, to admit students. The Supreme Court observed that the Bench headed by Justice Shukla had violated judicial propriety. The CJI formed a three-member committee, comprising Chief Justices Indira Banerjee of the Madras High Court and S.K. Agnihotri of the Sikkim High Court and Justice P.K. Jaiswal of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, to examine his conduct. The committee has now found substance in the allegations and that the judge had deviated from the “values of judicial life”. It is unfortunate that Justice Shukla has not tendered his resignation or sought retirement, the options available to him to avoid the ignominy of impeachment in Parliament. His position has paved the way for the CJI to recommend his removal.

The allegations against him appear to correspond to the claims in a first information report registered by the CBI against another medical college trust and alleged middlemen, including a retired judge of the Orissa High Court, that there was a plot to influence public servants to obtain favourable orders. The allegation had set off a storm in the judiciary, as some orders related to medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh were also passed by Supreme Court Benches headed by Chief Justice Misra himself. The climactic event was the unprecedented press conference at which four senior-most judges alleged the CJI had departed from convention while using his power to draw up the roster. It is important for the institution that the charges against Justice Shukla are properly investigated. It may have a sobering effect on those who desire that the institution be cleansed as well as those who feel there is an unwarranted onslaught on it. The process of removing a judge is too elaborate and somewhat cumbersome. However, an in-house finding may help hasten it in flagrant cases. The possibility of getting a motion passed in Parliament is brighter, and the charge of the process being misused for partisan ends is reduced. The removal of a serving judge is undoubtedly a sad development, but one that the institution should not fight shy of in appropriate cases. That internal mechanisms work with due regard for institutional integrity is something that should be welcomed.

Vocabulary

Impropriety: a failure to observe standards or show due honesty or modesty; improper language, behavior, or character.

Example: She was scandalized at the impropriety of the question

Synonyms: wrongdoing, misconduct, dishonesty, corruption, unscrupulousness

Antonyms: properness, correctitude, propriety

Adverse: preventing success or development; harmful; unfavorable.

Example: Taxes are having an adverse effect on production

Synonyms: unfavorable, disadvantageous, inauspicious, unpropitious, unfortunate

Antonyms: favourable, favorable

Restrain: prevent someone or something from doing something; keep under control or within limits.

Example: He had to be restrained from walking out of the meeting

Synonyms: prevent, stop, keep, hold back

Antonyms: aid, animate, arouse, emancipate, encourage

Violate: break or fail to comply with a rule or formal agreement.

Example: They violated the terms of a ceasefire

Synonyms: contravene, breach, infringe, break, transgress, overstep, disobey

Antonyms: conform to

Propriety: the state or quality of conforming to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals.

Example: He always behaved with the utmost propriety

Synonyms: decorum, respectability, decency, correctness, protocol

Antonyms: improperness, impropriety

Deviate: depart from an established course.

Example: You must not deviate from the agreed route

Synonyms: diverge from, digress from, drift from, stray from, veer from, swerve from

Antonyms: normal, conform

Substance: a particular kind of matter with uniform properties.

Example: A steel tube coated with a waxy substance

Synonyms: material, matter, stuff

Antonyms: attribute, attribute, property, quality

Impeachment: the action of calling into question the integrity or validity of something.

Example: The prosecutor's detailed impeachment of the character witness

Sober: make or become sober after drinking alcohol.

Example: That coffee sobered him up

Synonyms: quit drinking, dry out, become sober

Antonyms: frivolous, sottish, colorful, orgiastic, hopped-up

Onslaught: a fierce or destructive attack.

Example: A series of onslaughts on the citadel

Synonyms: assault, attack, offensive, advance, charge, onrush, rush, storming

Antonyms: defense, repulsion, resistance, retreat, submission

Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

Example: He is known to be a man of integrity

Synonyms: honesty, probity, rectitude, honor, good character

Antonyms: dishonesty, favoritism, inequity, injustice