The Committee on Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms (CJAR) is a group of lawyers in

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

who work to improve the accountability of judges. In 1998 the committee prepared a charge sheet to impeach Justice Madan Mohan Punchhi, and obtained the signatures of 25

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, wikisource:Constitution of India/Part V#Article 80, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legisl ...

MPs. However, Punchhi was appointed Chief Justice of India before the required 50 signatures had been obtained, at which point it became impossible to gain further support for the motion. The Committee on Judicial Accountability issued a highly critical report on the Judges Enquiry Bill, 2006, saying of that bill that it "is going to reduce whatever little accountability of Judges remained under the present Judges Enquiry Act". Anil B. Divan said "The aforementioned new bill is worse than the old Judges Inquiry Act and it needs to be scrapped in toto. This new bill is nothing but a sham". In December 2009 the CJA stated that it considered that recommendations for judicial appointments should only be made after a public debate, including review by members of the bar of the affected high courts. This statement was made in relation to controversy about the appointments of justices

C. K. Prasad Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad (born 15 July 1949) is the Chairman of the Press Council of India. Prior to his appointment, he served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial ...

and

P. D. Dinakaran Paul Daniel Dinakaran Premkumar (born 9 May 1950) was the Chief Justice of the Sikkim High Court. He resigned from the post following allegations of corruption and subsequent impeachment#India, removal proceedings. Childhood and education P.D ...

. The statement was signed by

Ram Jethmalani Ram Boolchand Jethmalani (14 September 1923 – 8 September 2019) was an Indian lawyer and politician. He served as India's Union minister of law and justice, as chairman of the Indian Bar Council, and as the president of the Supreme Court B ...

Shanti Bhushan Shanti Bhushan (born 11 November 1925) is an Indian politician and lawyer. He served as the Law Minister of India holding office at the Ministry of Law and Justice from 1977 to 1979 in the Morarji Desai Ministry. He is a senior advocate of the ...

Fali Sam Nariman Fali Sam Nariman (born 10 January 1929) is an Indian jurist. He is the senior advocate to the Supreme Court of India since 1971 and was the President of the Bar Association of India from 1991 to 2010. Nariman is an internationally recognised jur ...

, Anil B. Divan,

Kamini Jaiswal Kamini Jaiswal is an Indian lawyer practicing at Supreme Court of India. She along with Prashant Bhushan appeared for PIL filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) in Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court withi ...

and Prashant Bhushan. Prashant Bhushan is also the convenor of the Working Committee of the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms.

References

{{reflist Social issues in India Legal organisations based in India