SC to hear case casting aspersions on judiciary
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court of India referred a case alleging corruption involving members of the judiciary to a five-judge Constitution bench – the first time such allegations are being taken seriously enough for such a move.
The case concerns admission to a medical college run by the Prasad Education Trust in Lucknow. Earlier this year, the government barred the college from admitting students in the year 2017-18 and 2018-19. The trust sought relief in both the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court.
In an order dated September 18, a bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra refused relief for the 2017-18 academic year and asked the Medical Council of India to inspect the college afresh for the year 2018-19.
But that wasn’t the end of the matter.
On September 19, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a First Investigation Report against Justice (retired) IM Quddusi and a certain Bhavna Pandey under the anti-corruption law. The CBI said the two had assured the Lucknow-based medical college’s representative that they could facilitate favourable orders from the Supreme Court.
The CBI claimed the former judge and Pandey had demanded “huge gratification for inducing public servants by corrupt and illegal means.”
Three days later, the two and four others including a hawala operator, were arrested. Within 48 hours, a special CBI judge gave bail to Justice Quddusi, an order that was never challenged.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court’s reference of a petition based on the CBI’S FIR to the Constitution Bench was preceded by high drama.
On Wednesday, a petition filed by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) based on the CBI complaint was mentioned before Justice Jasti Chelameswar’s bench.
He ordered it to be listed for hearing on Friday.
On Thursday, a similar petition filed by Kamini Jaiswal came up before Justice Chelameswar. The petition argued for a court supervised investigation by a Special Investigation Team into the matter. “Since this case has brought to light an instance of corruption in the very highest echelons of power, including the justice delivery system, the CBI, a government controlled agency, may not be best suited to continue this investigation,” the petition said.