E GIRI YADAV Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RECENT events involving the higher judiciary highlighted by the Press and the Media seem to have spurred the petitioner, a member of the legal fraternity, professed social worker and a self - proclaimed sentinel of judicial independence, to file the present writ petition. His prayer in the writ petition is in the following terms:

(2.) THE permission granted by the Honourable The Chief Justice of India to the Central Bureau of Investigation to examine two Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave impetus to this writ petition. This permission is characterized by the petitioner as an administrative order open to challenge as it impinges upon the independence of the Judiciary. It is his contention that this permission upsets the balance of powers amongst the three branches of constitutional Government and provokes examination of the basic structure of our constitutional dispensation, thereby enabling this Court to exercise it's power of judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(3.) THE petitioner likens this administrative action on the part of the Honourable The Chief Justice of India to a 'damocles Sword' hanging over the head of every High Court Judge and alleges that under such a threat, no High Court Judge would be able to function independently, without fear and apprehension of being subjected to investigation. Such action, according to the petitioner, would be violative of Articles 124 (4) and 218 of the Constitution of India and would also be contrary to Section 3 of the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 (for short, 'the Act of 1968' ).