PRELUDE

Necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity inspired formation of an association for the noble object of welfare of all judicial officers- both in service and retired, including their family members throughout India; and so we establish “Association of Judges” as a representative body to represent the interest of it’s members of whole India.

“Honeste Vivere” – “Honeste vivere non alterum laedere et jus suum cuique tribuere” is one of the three basic principle, emancipated in Justinian Code, means, “to live virtuously, not to injure others and to give anyone his due,” in the context of Roman Law, interprets the Supreme Norms of Justice - where living honourably means being truthful, fair and just in all aspects of life. It ratiocinates right of sanctioning your valid bills and claims on time, being honest in your relationship and treating others with respect as the ways to live honourably. Honeste Vivere is an important principle that emphasizes living a virtuous life and we the members of our association, with such a noble cause aspire to establish our this association to ensure virtuous life with due claims.

The solemn mandate of our association includes work for protection and enhancement of Judicial Independence, improvement of Judicial Administration and promotion of relation with other welfare associations of Judges and other social welfare organisations for the betterment of Judicial Officers and their family members and social welfare activities for the betterment of the society in general. We intend to promote social welfare activities in the field of arts, science, literature, culture, sports, legal education and awareness, etc. in the interest social justice and humanity to achieve the preembular goals enshrined in our Constitution – Justice, social economic and political.

Right to association is the fundamental right of all citizens in a democratic republic like our country. As general citizen of the country we the judicial officers, have our right to be associated for our betterment and for contribution to the society for welfare of our fellow men of the society.

Clause 4.6 of the Bangalore Principle of Judicial Conduct reiterates – “a judge like any other citizen is entitled to freedom of expression, belief, association and assembly, but in exercising such right a judge shall always conduct himself or herself in such a manner as to preserve the dignity of the judicial office and the impartiality and independence of the judiciary”. Clause 4.13 of Bangalore Principle reads that “a judge may form or join associations of judges or participate in other organizations representing the interest of judges.”

Our officers throughout the country feel that it is the need of the hour to form this association for our common good by collective effort and mutual assistance for our betterment.

Our Association solicits active cooperation and involvement of our like minded esteemed members to help the association to take up the service related issues for betterment of service condition of the Judicial Officers of the country as a whole. We all are aware that Judicial Officers are being deprived of their legitimate claims and they are to continue their work with inadequate infrastructure.

In the Judgment of All India Judges Association Vs. Union of India case, the Honble Apex Court of India was graciously pleased to reiterate that “the judge has burdensome responsibility to discharge. He has power over lives and livelihood of all those litigant who enter his court. His decision may well affect the interest of individuals and groups who are not present or represented in court, if he is not careful, the judge may participate in a civil war ….or he may accelerate a revolution ….he may accidentally cause a peaceful hut fundamental change in the political complexion of the country. It is time, we mentioned about societies expectation from the Judicial Officers. A judge ought to be wise enough to know that he is fallible and, therefore, even ready to learn and be courageous enough to acknowledge his errors”.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has been pleased to further observe that “the sedentary work is mainly of two types mechanical and creative. Each case coming before the judge as its own peculiarities requiring application of fresh mind and skill. The judge has constantly to be a creative artist. His work, therefore, requires constant thinking and display of talent. The exertions involved in the duties of the judge cannot be compared with the duties of other services. …... it must be remembered that judges are not employees of the State but are holders of public office who wield sovereign judicial power. In that sense they are only comparable to members of the legislature and ministers in the executive. Accordingly, parity cannot be claimed between staff of the legislative wing and executive wing with officers of judicial wing.”

In spite of various benevolent recommendations of the Hon’ble Shetty Commission being accepted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the Judicial Officers of whole India frequently suffer from multifarious problems in connection to their service condition, infrastructure and service benefits for which many a time they need to agitate before the Government, the Hon’ble High Courts and the Hon’ble Supreme Court for eradication of problems and for proper implementation of the scheme of benefits. At the time of such move, an association may properly help and assist the individual officers or group of officers. It is more convenient to move the issues by associated efforts.

There are already existing Associations of the esteemed officers to take up the issues in national and state level and we extend high sense of respect to all such associations and we appreciate all good steps taken by them for our betterment. Now we also intend to lay our contribution for our common cause including our pay and allowance revision and service related issues. The service condition of the Judicial Officers has been ameliorated than what it existed before by the benevolent recommendations of the Hon’ble Shetty Commission and Hon’ble Padmanavan Commission in the Country, but till now, in some states of our Country all the benefits, allowances and privileges are yet to be conferred to the respective officers due to want of appropriate State Government Order to that effect in compliance of the Solemn recommendations and also the Judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in respect to Pay and Allowances. In spite of there being specific recommendations followed by order of the Hon’ble Apex Court, officers are being deprived of their due claims of some benefits and many a time officers are to fight their issues in isolation without some active and conjoint support from any quarters. We hope that our association will stand for all common cause and individual problems faced by our Officers in case of necessity throughout the country. The association intends to promote an atmosphere of fellow-feelingness with mutual respect and assistance to each other to ensure justice to the esteemed men who dedicate themselves to deliver justice to the society.