Hyderabad: Raju Ramachandran, a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court and a Distinguished Professor of Law at NALSAR, highlighted the need for a system that ensures both the judiciary’s independence and accountability. He stressed that transparency and fairness are crucial for maintaining public trust and upholding the constitution.
Speaking at NALSAR University of Law during the Distinguished Lecture Series, he focused on the topic “Removal of Judges: From Justice V. Ramaswami to Justice Yashwant Verma.”
Prof. Anup Surendranath introduced Ramachandran, while Dr. Malvika Prasad explained the Lecture Series. Important attendees included Prof. (Dr.) Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor, Prof. N. Vasanthi, Registrar, and other faculty and legal professionals.
Ramachandran referenced past events and his experience in the Justice V. Ramaswami case, India’s first full judicial impeachment. He described the development of judicial tenure protections from colonial times to post-independence.
He mentioned the 1964 case of Justice Jaffer Imam, who was asked by Prime Minister Nehru to resign due to incapacity, highlighting gaps in the removal process for judges.
The lecture detailed the Justice V. Ramaswami case, noting the inquiry’s integrity but the political failure when the impeachment motion failed in Parliament due to abstentions.
Ramachandran criticized the current system’s reliance on the judiciary’s internal mechanism, which lacks transparency and operates without public oversight. This creates uncertainty when such findings affect impeachment processes in Parliament.
He discussed the recent case of Justice Yashwant Varma, where an internal committee suggested impeachment. He questioned how court challenges to these findings might affect judicial and parliamentary processes, potentially leading to what he called a “reverse-Ramaswami scenario.”
