The Supreme Court, on 1 December, dismissed a petition filed by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), which had asked for a court-monitored Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe allegations of bribery by a medical college.
The petitioners had argued that this was necessary since the CBI were investigating a retired judge in the case who had claimed he could influence judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts.
The bench of Justices RK Agrawal, AM Khanwilkar and Arun Mishra dismissed the PIL two weeks after dismissing a petition filed by senior advocate Kamini Jaiswal asking for the same thing.
The petitions sparked controversy after Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the second-most senior judge of the court, advised the setting up of a Constitution Bench to hear the matters – only for the Chief Justice of India to reverse those orders and decide which judges would hear the matter.
Senior advocates Prashant Bhushan, Kamini Jaiswal and Dushyant Dave, involved in both cases, had raised concerns about the involvement of the CJI, since he and Justice Khanwilkar were potentially caught up in the allegations (though they had not been named in the FIR or investigation).
The judgment, delivered after brief hearings earlier in the week, also imposed a fine of Rs 25 lakh on CJAR, which is to be deposited with the Supreme Court Bar Welfare Fund. It should be noted that the Supreme Court Bar Association had objected to the petitions, which they had claimed amounted to contempt of court, and had asked for contempt proceedings to be initiated against Bhushan, Jaiswal and Dave.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)