Uttar Pradesh’s stand on CBI probe into judiciary-graft sought
as reported By Sindh Today|Sep 9th, 2008

New Delhi, Sep 9 (IANS) The Supreme Court Tuesday rebuked the Uttar Pradesh government for hiding from it the Ghaziabad police’s suggestion to transfer a corruption case against judges, including those of higher judiciary, to the Central Bureau of Investigation for further probe.

A bench of Justice Arijit Pasayat also sought the state government’s stand on the suggestion by the district police, which is presently probing the fraudulent withdrawal of over Rs.70 million from Ghaziabad district court’s treasury between 2001 and 2007 with many sitting and retired judges being beneficiaries of the fund.

The bench, which also included Justice V.S. Sirpurkar and Justice G.S. Singhvi, was hearing a lawsuit by the Ghaziabad Bar Association (GBA) seeking a high-level probe into the allegations of judges being the beneficiaries of the fraudulent withdrawal.

The bench grew furious after senior counsel Anil Divan, appearing for GBA, disclosed to the court that Ghaziabad senior superintendent of police (SSP) has repeatedly written to the state’s director general of police (DGP) about the difficulties being faced by it in probing the matter further apparently owing to involvement of the members of judiciary.

Revealing the information, acquired by the GBA from the district police under the Right to Information Act, Divan said the Ghaziabad SSP has suggested to the state’s DGP to transfer investigations to the CBI as the probe by it has reached a dead end ‘in some aspects.’

At this the bench got furious as the whole purpose of the lawsuit is to seek a CBI probe into the matter, while the state government concealed from the court the Ghaziabad police’s suggestion.

The state government hid the information at least on three occasions, when the matter was heard by two other benches, including those of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and the second senior most judge, Justice B.N. Agrawal.

Lamenting that hiding of the information has resulted in ‘wastage of precious judicial time’, the bench said: ‘You have made a mockery of the entire judicial system. It’s unfortunate.’

Asked specifically about the state government’s stand on transferring the probe to the CBI, Uttar Pradesh Advocate General Jitendra Mishra meekly said: ‘We need some more time to take a decision.’

At this, the bench asked him to apprise the court of the government’s stand and adjourned the matter for further hearing in the third week of October.

The hearing on the sensitive issue, involving corruption in higher judiciary, has repeatedly led to fiery arguments in the court room, resulting in the chief justice and later Justice Agrawal abandoning the hearing mid-way.
Chief Justice Balakrishnan abandoned the hearing as senior counsel Shanti Bhushan, appearing for a non-governmental organisation Transparency International, had sought direct interrogation of judges, allegedly involved in the scam, by the police.

He had made the demand challenging Chief Justice Balakrishnan’s administrative order to the police to submit its written questionnaire to his office for vetting before being posed to the judges.

As Shanti Bhushan challenged the administrative order of the chief justice and no judge can sit in judgement over an issue involving himself, the chief justice abandoned the hearing.

The matter was later transferred to the bench of second senior most judge, Justice Agrawal, who too abandoned the hearing following repeated allegations by Shanti Bhushan that the Supreme court was protecting the corrupt judges.

Uttar Pradesh’s stand on CBI probe into judiciary-graft sought | Sindh Today

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