It refers to justified step of central government in not clearing Sydney-tour of several judges of Delhi High Court. Tour-programmes of judges of even Supreme Court including also of the then Chief Justice of India have been media-headlines because of controversies. A Chief Justice of India was once in news for asking travel-allowance for his accompanying wife on a foreign tour. Retreat-of-Judges programme held at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh between 14th to 17th April 2016 for Supreme Court judges along with their spouses became news-item for Supreme Court judges and other VVIP guests having been allegedly served in silver utensils and also given costly gifts with even a caterer from far-away city Indore having said to be specially arranged for the luxurious feast hosted by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister while Bhopal being the city-capital itself has many good hotels, caterers and even a government-institute for training in hotel-management. It is beyond understanding why spouses of judges are allowed to enjoy official trips at government-cost.
To have a practical and effective check on public-money spent on tour and travels, central government should issue directive to put all details of tours and travels made at public-expense including for judges on respective websites of public-authorities. It is significant that a CIC-verdict made even President secretariat to do so in respect of Presidents after the then President Pratibha Patil misused highest office for luxurious trips for her grand-children, friends and relations at high cost of rupees 200-225 crores.
Since Supreme Court turned down a CIC-verdict in respect of amount-disclosure of medical-reimbursements of individual judges of Supreme Court, central government should legislate for compulsorily putting consolidated amounts of annual medical-reimbursements of all individuals including of judges on respective websites of public-authorities.
SUBHASH CHANDRA AGRAWAL