Good-behaviour tenure involves the question of removal of judges from office. In all States a provision is made for the removal of corrupt and inefficient judges. But it must be a difficult process so as to obviate the abuse of power and its capricious operation.
If the tenure of a judge is to depend upon the pleasure of a particular person or agency, neither independence nor impartiality can be ensured, because the slightest ill-will incurred by a judge may result in the termination of his services.
It is, therefore, deemed desirable that the process of removal of a judge from his office should involve much consideration and should pass through the hands of more than one person or agencies.
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In Great Britain, a Judge can be removed by the King on a joint address by Parliament indicting him for corruption or moral turpitude. In the United States, the Judges of the Supreme Court are removed by impeachment.
The process of impeachment is that the House of Representatives prefers the charges and the trial is held by the Senate. In India, judges held office, before 1947, during the pleasure of the Crown. Judges of the Federal Court and of High Courts were removed from office by the Crown for misbehaviour or infirmity, on a report of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
The Constitution of India (1950) provides that a judge of the Supreme Court and of a High Court shall be removed from office by an order of the President after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.
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A difficult method of removal, where more than one agency intervenes, ensures security of office and it is one of the most important factors responsible for the impartiality of the majority party.
But in countries where the system of recall exists, the independence and dignity of the judiciary has considerably deteriorated. Judges become plaything of the people and their vagaries. This method is also opposed for the same reasons for which popular election of Judges is deemed unwise.