Judicial Independence and Accountability
Constitutional Balance
The removal procedure's high threshold is deliberately designed to insulate judges from political pressure, but this design is also critiqued for making accountability difficult.
- No judge of the Supreme Court has ever been successfully impeached in India's constitutional history.
- The only attempt — against Justice V. Ramaswami in 1993 — failed in the Lok Sabha when the motion did not secure the requisite two-thirds majority.
- The K. Veeraswami case (SC, 1991): held that prior sanction of the Chief Justice of India is required before a First Information Report (FIR) can be registered against a sitting Supreme Court judge — reinforcing the need for internal accountability first.
- Judicial accountability reforms discussed: Judicial Appointments Commission (struck down in NJAC case, 2015), Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill (2010, lapsed), and periodic calls for a statutory Judicial Conduct Commission.
● Tracked since February 14, 2026 · last seen May 18, 2026 · updates as the daily brief publishes
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