New Delhi, Mar 31 (PTI) Over 1,600 complaints have been received against functioning of the judiciary, including corruption, in the past five years on a centralised system and they have been forwarded to the Chief Justice of India or chief justices of various high courts, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said "1,631 number of complaints (from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2021) in the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) on the functioning of the judiciary, including judicial corruption have been received during the last five years and forwarded to the CJI/Chief Justice of High Courts respectively as per the established in-house mechanism.

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He also said in the last five years, only in one case, the Department of Justice in the Law Ministry, with the approval of the President of India, conveyed sanction for prosecution under section 19 of Prevention of Corruption Act and section 197 of CrPC to CBI against a retired high court judge in 2021.

As per the established "in-house" mechanism for the higher judiciary, the chief justice of India is competent to receive complaints against the conduct of judges of the apex court and the chief justices of the high courts, he said.

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Similarly, the chief justices of the high courts are competent to receive complaints against the conduct of high court judges.

The complaints or representations received are forwarded to the CJI or to the chief justice of the concerned high court, as the case may be, "for appropriate action".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)