SC Sacks Two Court Masters for Tampering With Order on Anil Ambani

In the order in question, the apex court had issued a notice to Ambani and had sought his personal appearance.

File image of Anil Ambani, chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

(Photo: Reuters)

The Supreme Court has sacked two court masters – Manav Sharma and Tapan Kumar Chakaraborty – for tampering with orders of the Supreme Court in Ericsson’s contempt plea against Reliance Communications and Anil Ambani, reports The Telegraph.

The order in question was of 7 January, wherein the apex court had issued a notice to Ambani and had sought his personal appearance. However, when the order was uploaded on the website it read:

“... personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) dispensed with.”

This had been brought to the court’s notice by Ericsson counsel and a corrected order was uploaded on the website on 10 January.

After a preliminary inquiry, it was found that the omission of the word “not” in the order was not accidental.

An order was passed by the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on the administrative side dismissing the two employees.

Meanwhile, the court on Wednesday, 13 February, reserved its verdict in the contempt petition after a day-long hearing.

(This article was first published on Bar & Bench and has been republished with permission)

(Krishnan is the Associate Editor of Bar and Bench. He tweets @legaljournalist.)