M Surendra Nathan
It is for the first time in the judicial history of free India that four senior-most Supreme Court (SC) judges were seen redressing their purported grievances at the feet of journalists in a public street! This single episode is enough for the total erosion of respect, faith and trust towards judiciary in the minds of the Indian citizens.
By resorting to this unprecedented move they have
violated all the cannons of justice delivery system and transgressed all the Constitutional provisions
pertaining to the dignity and integrity of the judiciary.
Under Article 124 of the Constitution, the Judges of the Supreme Court are required to
subscribe, in the presence of the President, to an oath which, inter alia, states as follows: “He/she will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law
established; that he/she will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India; that he/she will duly and
faithfully and to the best of his/her ability, knowledge and judgment perform the duties of his/her office without fear or favour, affection or ill-will and that he/she will uphold the constitution and the laws”.
Apart from the aforesaid unequivocal constitutional provisions which are aimed at ensuring dignity and the august status of the judiciary, there are well laid out
judicial ethics, particularly adhered to by the International Court of Justice. A couple of these ethics are quoted here: “(1) A Judge shall not enter into public debate or express his view in public on political matters or on
matters that are pending or are likely to arise for judicial determination, (2) A Judge is expected to let his
judgments speak for themselves. He shall not give interviews to the media”.
It is quite unfortunate that the aforesaid unprecedented episode occurred close on the heels of the CBI Special Judge, OP Saini,
acquitting all the accused in the 2G spectrum scam case.
It is, therefore, essential to
analyse these unprecedented episodes so as to find out ways and means to avert recrudescence of similar revolting scenes.
It is already well-known that these four Judges revolted against the Chief Justice of India by going to the media were included in the list of SC Judges who were indulging in
corrupt practices as per the reported statements made by yet another Senior Judge of the Hon’ble High Court of Calcutta, who has now retired. Thus, in 2013 and 2014 Justice (retd) Karnan of the Madras High Court wrote to the then Chief Justice of India and to the PM regarding corrupt practices indulged in by 20 Judges of the SC including the four revolting Judges. However, for the larger interest of judicial
propriety, the SC did not pay much heed to the said reported statements made by Justice Karnan in his letter. Justice Karnan himself had stated, inter alia, at a seminar organised by a Southern Law University: “The SC did not apply its mind (in
investigating about the misdeeds of these Judges)….” and he added: “That’s why public confidence in the judiciary is decreasing day by day”.
It has now turned out to be a paramount duty of the Apex Court to set up appropriate Commission of Enquiry to unravel the mental aspects, character and a thorough background-check of these Judges as well as to find out the veracity of the pronouncements made by the then sitting Judge, Justice Karnan, so as to bring transparency in the functioning of judiciary.
It is pertinent to mention here that there are several leads which would conclusively clinch the fact that these four judges were influenced by the Left-wing political forces
stemming from certain quarters of the country which are akin to the episode of “Break India Gang”
agitation resorted to by students of the JN University.
Triggering Factor
What triggered the unprecedented conduct of the Judges is a PIL regarding the death of the Special CBI Judge BH Loya (who was earlier presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case in the CBI Court) filed before the SC. It was alleged in the said PIL that Amit Shah, the BJP President, was involved in the said case as one of the accused and therefore the Petitioners surmised, that he had a hand in the death of Justice Loya.
It is all the more significant to state here that the said PIL was filed by an activist, who is a close
associate of Teesta Setalvad,
viz. Tahseen Poonawala. It is
everybody’s knowledge that Teesta was the foot soldier of certain
foreign fundamentalist NGO and money was poured into her account from them for utilising it for
“trapping” the then CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi, by hook or crook as one of the accused in the Gujarat riots so as to debar him once for all from coming into power either in Gujarat or at the Centre.
It is pertinent to state here that as Teesta and her husband Javed Anand maintained their account through which they received money from the foreign NGO, they were bound and liable to file returns regarding the remittances of foreign money in their account with the
concerned authorities, which they adamantly failed and neglected to do and on the contrary they splurged up the money towards various anti-social and anti-national activities.
It is significant to mention here that it is well-known across the
country that Teesta had been
fighting a long battle against the then CM Modi over the 2002 Gujarat riots during which period she had left no stone unturned in “trapping” him by way of hoisting upon him
numerous false and frivolous
criminal cases, all of which came to be dismissed one after the other.
Teesta is, therefore, like a
wounded and defeated war horse brimming with unfounded revenge and getting ready for committing
further damages to Modi and his political party at the behest of her foreign masters. It is in these
circumstances that she simply passed on the baton to her trusted friend and co-activist, Tehseen Poonavala, for going against Modi’s trusted friend Amit Shah by way of filing a false and frivolous PIL.
Moreover, the elder son of late Judge, Anuj Loya, aged about 22 years, has categorically ruled out the possibilities of any foul play in the death of his father. He further added that none of the immediate family members of his father has any
suspicions regarding the death of his father and that he died of certain coronary artery ailments which he said his father had suffered in the past too.
It is elementary logic that when the immediate kith and kin of the deceased has no suspicion
regarding any foul play in the death the locus standi of the petitioners, if any, in filing the said PIL should have automatically been nullified.
In any case, even if the PIL is to be tried, the cooperation from the immediate family members of
the deceased Judge is to be
enlisted, which is fundamental to an impartial trial.
The million dollar question,
therefore, is as to how and why the four Judges, particularly Chemaleswar, were so anxious to get allotted the said case to them or to any one of them.
1984 Riots Cases
It could be discerned that the paramount reasons for the revolt are that the CJI has reopened the 1984 riots cases pertaining to the genocide of Sikhs from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi involving high-profile Congress and left-wing political leaders. In addition, the Ram Mandir Vs. Babri Masjid verdict will be coming up soon. The purported grievances of these revolting judges are that all these cases were not being assigned to them or to any one of them so that they could have dealt with the same according to their whims and fancies and for serving the causes of their political masters.
2G Spectrum Case
Coming back to the question of 2G Spectrum case judgment by CBI Special Judge, acquitting all the accused, I would say that it would be one of the greatest blows to the
edifice of the Indian judiciary.
The trial of 2G Spectrum case was highly vitiated by way of
nullifying the entire trial on account of the conflict of interest.
Thus, the Special Public Prosecutor, who was assigned the prosecution duties against all those found guilty in the 2G Spectrum scam was a lawyer, ‘Anand Grover’ while Indira Jaising was appointed as First Female Additional Solicitor General of India.
The 2G Spectrum scam occurred during the tenure of Indira Jaising who is a hard-core leftist ideologue and is harbouring utter contempt towards Hinduism. The 2G spectrum scam occurred under the nose of Jaising when she was holding the Constitutional post of Additional Solicitor General of India and
simultaneously working for
numerous lucrative foreign NGOs during the UPA period. Anand Grover, who was a British citizen, and as mentioned above he was appointed as the Special Public Prosecutor for the trial of the 2G Spectrum Scam case.
It is therefore common sense that both Indira Jaising and Anand Grover were overwhelmingly interested in defeating the whole trial as their
selfish and personal interests to save themselves from the predicament of prosecuting the accused. I have gone through the entire judgment passed by CBI Special Judge, OP Saini and I would like to analyse here just one observation out of numerous
observations made in over 1500 pages of the judgment.
The Judge observes that he could not find even a shred of evidence against any of the accused in the 2G spectrum scam. Under para 1817 he observes as follows: “There is no evidence on the record produced before the court indicating any
criminality in the acts allegedly
committed by the accused.” When the 2G Spectrum scam episode exploded like a powerful bomb
during the UPA regime headed by an Italian woman, which lead the Hon’ble Supreme Court to cancel the whole allocation made by the then Telecom Minister, there used to be daily reports in the mainstream media wherein truckload of
documentary evidence regarding the illigality in the whole conduct of those ministers involved as well as illegal gratification, etc. were accurately reported. Moreover, for cancelling the allotment, the Hon’ble SC has considered the evidentiary values of all the documents pertaining to the scam submitted before it and found that prima facie evidence would conclusively clinch the complicity of the accused. And yet it is unbelievable, to say the least, that the prosecution could not adduce even a shred of evidence before the CBI Court!
I have reasons to believe that Anand Grover who has had an
overwhelming interest in defeating the whole case so as to save his Mistress, Indira Jaising, from all the predicaments as the 2G spectrum scam occurred under her nose, has willfully concealed and/or destroyed the entire evidence.
It is now for the citizens of the country to consider and try the aforesaid historic episodes in the people’s court in the larger interest of safety, security and integrity of the country.
(The writer is Mumbai-based Lawyer and Law Lecturer)
Leave a Comment