Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad Calls For Enactment Of Code Of Conduct For Retired Judges
The Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad has expressed its displeasure at retired judges appearing as expert witnesses before foreign courts in support of fugitives from Indian justice.
The National Council of the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad, the largest lawyers' organisation in the country, has passed a resolution calling for enactment of a law containing a code of conduct for retired Judges.
“The documented record is damning”, the Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad has stated while expressing its displeasure at retired judges appearing as expert witnesses before foreign courts in support of fugitives from Indian justice.
In the resolution passed by the National Council of Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad on April 5, 2026, the Parishad has demanded that the Parliament enacts a Judicial Officers (Post Retirement Conduct and Accountability) Act providing that former judges who accept remunerated expert, advisory, or consultancy roles in matters of public significance, particularly in cross-border litigation involving India, should make full and timely disclosure of such engagements to an appropriate institutional body which would be uploaded on a publicly accessible website.
In the resolution, the Parishad has highlighted how Justice Deepak Verma, Justice Markandey Katju, Justice Abhay Thipsay, and Late Justice Pana Chand Jain have appeared in separate foreign proceedings. As per the Parishad, Justice Deepak Verma (Retd., Supreme Court) had appeared in three separate foreign proceedings, including the Mallya bankruptcy, Sanjay Bhandari, and, recently, in Nirav Deepak Modi v. Government of India (2026).
The Parishad further highlighted that Justice Markandey Katju (Retd., SC) appeared for Niray Modi before Westminster Magistrates Court in 2021. Justice Abhay Thipsay (Retd., Bombay HC) appeared in the same 2021 proceedings. According to the Parishand, in Bhandari v. Government of India (2025) he was found to have become "a more combative witness" acting "as an advocate for the defendant rather than an independent expert." Previously, Late Justice Pana Chand Jain (Retd., Rajasthan HC) also appeared for Mallya in 2019.
“The irony is that these noble men draw their pension from the Consolidated Fund of India, funded by the same citizens whose bank deposits were plundered by the fugitives they chose to assist. The Parishad records that Justice Deepak Verma, Justice Markandey Katju, Justice Abhay Thipsay, and Late Justice Pana Chand Jain have forfeited their moral entitlement to every benefit and designation flowing from the constitutional offices they once held”, the resolution read.
“Many former judges have, with exemplary restraint, declined post-retirement engagements that would conflict, or even appear to conflict,with the dignity and neutrality of the judicial office they once held”, it added.
The Parishad has further mentioned that the Judicial Officers (PostRetirement Conduct and Accountability) Act should have a provision for complete prohibition on former constitutional court judges testifying before foreign courts in proceedings adverse to India's sovereign positions or public institutions. As per the Parishad, there should be an automatic forfeiture of all retirement benefits upon violation.
“The Parishad also calls upon the Government of India to appoint a Committee to prepare a complete draft Bill in the said regard and submit it within sixty days to the Minister of Law and Justice and Leaders of both the Houses”, said a release signed by Senior Advocate K. Srinivas Murthy, the National President of ABAP.
“The advocates of Bharat will not be silent while the Republic's own former judges, pensioned by the Indian taxpayer and titled by the Constitution, rent their robes to those who have plundered their hard-earned money and acted against the interests of the sovereign people of Bharat”, it concluded.