Accountability a must for independent judiciary

"The independence of judiciary must be accompanied by accountability, ingrained in a judge's moral fabric," he said at a discussion on 'Independence and separation of Judiciary and the role of bar', organised by Bangladesh Bar Council.

Sanghi is the senior advocate of the Supreme Court of India.

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Terming the independence of judiciary a matter of day-to-day discussion, he said the British rulers deliberately intermingled the functions of the judiciary and the executive to serve their colonial interests.

"But any country which aspires to uphold the rule of law cannot tolerate an admixture of the judiciary and the executive," he added.

There has been discourse on the issue recently even in England, known as 'mother' of common law, he said.

Competence and sagacity of the judges and lawyers, Sanghi said, must back up the demand for independence of the judiciary.

Unless the freedom lies in the mind of a judge, the judiciary cannot be independent in true sense, he added.

"We have also to take the present globalised context into account when talking about independent judiciary as global economy affects the day-to-day lives of the people."

Unless there is a reputed and credible judiciary, foreign investment may not be encouraged, he said.

Sanghi said, "As judges are human beings, there have to be comprehensive protection against any possible temptations."

He said that India, the largest democracy in the world, suffered sweeping executive interference in the judiciary during the emergency of Indira Gandhi's regime, inflicting a great onslaught on judicial independence.

The discourse on the independence of judiciary has been drawing attention of the UN since early 1980s all over the world, he said.

Referring to a UN resolution in this regard, Sanghi said that a court of law has to be independent, impartial and fearless.

A set of principles framed in the Law-Asia's Beijing conference in 1985 raised the issues of law practitioners' accountability and probable abuse of independence of the judiciary.

"Bar council has to speak out to ensure the independence of the judiciary in the face of interference and threats from the executive, as the sitting judges cannot do the job," said the Bar Council President Rokan Uddin Mahmud.

Appointment of judges to higher courts in a fair manner is a means of upholding an independent image of the judiciary and its supremacy, but such appointments have been politicised during the last two years, he said.

"Today, we are fighting against a political force, which is deaf and dumb, for impartial image of the judiciary," Rokan said.

Several former presidents of the Bar Council and senior lawyers attended the discussion presided over by its Vice-President Amir-ul Islam.