The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended time for the government by another week to issue a gazette notification on the disciplinary and conduct rules for lower court judges.
An six-member SC bench, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, passed the order following four a week time-petition filed by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam. The Chief Justice, however, expressed dissatisfaction for seeking time repeatedly by the government in this regard.
Earlier, on March 14, the Supreme Court extended time by two weeks for issuing the gazette. On February 27, it also gave the government two weeks’ time to publish it. The court on February 5 instructed the authorities concerned to issue the gazette notification on the disciplinary and conduct rules for the lower court judges by February 12.
On November 24, 2016, the Supreme Court gave the government one week to publish the gazette notification. The lower judiciary was officially separated in November 2007 but the disciplinary rules for lower court judges are yet to be formulated. On December 2, 1999, the Supreme Court in the Masdar Hossain case issued a seven-point directive, including formulating separate disciplinary rules, for the lower court judges.
The Law Ministry on May 7, 2015 sent the draft of the rules to the Supreme Court which is similar to the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules 1985.
