If judge’s relative belongs to political party, is it illegal, SC pulls up lawyer

NEW DELHI: If a relative of a judge belongs to a political party, can it be an illegal act, an irked Supreme Court said on Tuesday while pulling up the lawyer seeking reconstitution of the judicial commission set up to probe the killing of UP gangster Vikas Dubey in police encounter on similar ground.

There are several judges who have Members of Parliament as relatives, the top court further observed and said that no aspersions can be cast on its former judge heading the judicial panel on the basis of newspaper reports.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde was hearing a plea seeking re-constitution of the inquiry commission and substituting its members -- Justice (retd) B S Chauhan, former Supreme Court judge, Justice (retd) Shashi Kant Agarwal and retired Uttar Pradesh DGP K L Gupta -- with other former judges of the apex court and retired DGPs.

The bench, also comprising Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, was told by petitioner Ghanshyam Upadhaya that brother of Justice Chauhan is an MLA in Uttar Pradesh and his daughter is married to a Member of Parliament.

The bench, which reserved its verdict on the application, asked Upadhaya whether any of the relatives of Justice Chauhan is connected with the incident or the inquiry and why he (Justice Chauhan) can’t be fair.

Dubey was killed in an encounter in the morning of July 10 when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he tried to escape from the spot in Bhauti area, the police had said.