Cooling-Off Period for Retired Chief Justices
Ban former Chief Justices of India from accepting nominated Rajya Sabha seats, gubernatorial posts, or party tickets for a five-year cooling-off period after retirement.
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The Demand
A retired Chief Justice of India accepting a Rajya Sabha nomination from the executive whose laws he reviewed weeks earlier is not a personal choice — it is a stress test of the separation of powers. We demand a five-year cooling-off period before any apex-court judge can accept a nominated parliamentary seat, gubernatorial post, or political party ticket.
Why This Matters
Judicial independence is not a feeling. It is the credible belief, held by ordinary citizens, that a judge’s next ruling cannot be quietly traded for her next posting. When that belief collapses, every verdict is read backwards.
Most modern democracies — the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia — have either bright-line bans or robust conventions. India has neither, and it shows.
Context
Multiple recent appointments of former Supreme Court judges to nominated parliamentary or quasi-political roles have raised the same question in print, on television, and in court bars: was this verdict the last verdict, or the first audition?
A cooling-off period removes the question. It does not impugn the judge; it protects the office.
What Signing Does
The petition will be submitted to the Department of Justice, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, and the Supreme Court Bar Association. Each signature is one more public vote for an independent judiciary by design, not by hope.