The manner in which the judiciary deals with allegations of corruption has been put in the spotlight as a result of that unaccounted cash was allegedly found in the home of Delhi High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma.

Though no judge has ever been impeached or convicted for corruption in India, there are broadly two courses of action that can be taken against Supreme Court and High Court judges for corruption.

The first is an in-house procedure adopted by the Supreme Court to deal with complaints against judges, which may result in the judge resigning or not being allocated judicial work. In extremely rare cases, it may result in the sanctioning of prosecution of the judge. The second is impeachment by Parliament. Detailed in the Constitution, it leads to the judge’s termination.

According to legal experts, the lack of prosecutions for corruption indicates that the current mechanisms are not capable of addressing judicial corruption. They suggest reforms such as overturning Supreme Court judgments that shield judges from scrutiny and liberalising India’s strict standards of judicial contempt that prevent public discussion on corruption allegations against judges.

The to address misconduct allegations against High Court and Supreme Court judges was introduced by the Supreme Court in 1999. A complaint...