On a day of high drama, a Supreme Court bench consisting of Justices J Chelameshwar and Abdul Nazeer referred a PIL asking for a detailed investigation into allegations of bribery against a retired Orissa High Court judge to a Constitution Bench. The five judge bench will consist five of the apex court’s senior-most judges, and will sit to hear the matter on Monday, 13 November 2017.
The allegations of bribery relate to promises supposedly given by retired Justice IM Quddusi to secure favourable orders from the Supreme Court in cases relating to the Prasad Education Trust. When aspects of these matters relating to the Trust have previously come up before the Supreme Court, they were heard by benches which included the current Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra.
To make matters more interesting, the CJI reportedly issued proceedings on this PIL himself even while the matter was already being heard in Court No. 2 (by Justices Chelameshwar and Nazeer), details of which were passed on to the judges — something which Justice Chelameshwar placed on record in his order today.
What are the Bribery Allegations That This Case Relates To?
On 20 September 2017, the CBI arrested Justice (retd) IM Quddusi along with BP Yadav and Palash Yadav (of the Prasad Educational Trust which operates a medical college in Lucknow), a hawala operator named Ramdev Saraswat, and a middleman named Biswanath Agrawala on charges of corruption and conspiracy to commit corruption.
According to the FIR in the case, Quddusi and a lady named Bhawna Pandey had been approached by BP Yadav to help them resolve their legal battle over the status of the Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences, which had been derecognised by the Medical Council of India. Quddusi allegedly assured Prasad that they would be able to secure favourable orders in the Supreme Court in the matter.
A number of Quddusi’s residences across the country were raided by the CBI as part of the investigation, although this also led to embarrassment when they raided the residence of sitting Orissa High Court judge CR Dash, which had been occupied by Quddusi several years before.
Quddusi was booked under section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, which relates to attempts to influence a public servant, as well as section 120B of the Indian Penal Code 1860 (criminal conspiracy).
Why has a PIL Been Filed in Relation to This Bribery Case?
Not just one, but two PILs have actually been filed in relation to this issue. One writ petition was filed by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), and the other by senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal. The petition filed by CJAR was heard by the same judges on 8 November, and the one by Ms Jaiswal on 9 November.
Both petitions have asked for an independent, deep and thorough investigation of the case by a special investigation team, to be headed by a former CJI and monitored by the court. The petitioners filed the PILs because the case involves allegations of corruption at the highest levels of the judiciary, and they were concerned with the CBI’s handling of the matter.
These concerns arose in part because the CBI did not oppose the bail applications by Quddusi and the others, which is strange given that the CBI reportedly have some extremely sensitive information in their possession.
What did Justice Chelameshwar and Justice Nazeer Decide?
The two judges had already heard CJAR’s petition on Wednesday, and listed it for further hearing on Friday, 10 November. When Ms Jaiswal’s petition, presented by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, came up in court on Thursday morning, the bench took the view that the matter was even more serious and urgent, and listed it to be heard at 12:45 in the afternoon.
Immediately after this, the CJI’s Constitution Bench, hearing the case on the powers of the Delhi government versus its Lieutenant Governor, unexpectedly adjourned. When Justice Chelameshwar and Justice Nazeer took up the matter again at 12:45, they received a note from the registry mentioning some proceedings issued by the CJI, the details of which are not clear at this point.
Regardless, Justice Chelameshwar was of the view that the matter was serious, but that a Constitution Bench was required to decide whether or not to order a special investigation (since a serious issue of Constitutional law would be at issue), and so said this would need to be done on Monday, 13 November.
It should be noted that Mr Dave specifically requested that CJI Dipak Misra not be included on the bench that decides this case since he had heard all the Trust’s previous applications before the Supreme Court. However, the order today says that the Constitution Bench should consist of the first five judges of the Supreme Court in order of seniority — which would certainly include the CJI.
The order from today also includes an interim order directing the CBI to produce all the material collected by it in the course of the investigation (including the case diary) before the Constitution Bench, in a sealed cover.
You can read the whole order here:
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