Maha government’s apology on pollution accepted

The Maharashtra government on Tuesday breathed some respite as the Bombay High Court accepted its 'unconditional' apology for accusing senior-most judge, Justice Abhay Oka of being 'biased.'

The government was pulled up in an earlier hearing after it had apologised by filing an application but on Tuesday, it filed an affidavit and apologised to Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, Justice Oka and the entire institution of HC.

This comes after the HC had on Monday refused to accept the apology saying it is not 'bona fide' and had accordingly come down heavily on the government.

Advocate General (AG) Ashutosh Kumbhkoni submitted the affidavit before a division bench of Justice Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla. He informed the judges that the government regretted its move (of alleging bias) and that now it has tendered an uncondtional apology to Chief Justice Chellur and Justice Oka along with the HC. He also submitted that this apology is not only from the officials who are involved in decision making rather on behalf of everyone in the Home department.

However, the AG's submissions did not spell out names of the officials who had instructed him to accuse Justice Oka of being biased in noise pollution matters.

After perusing the affidavit, Justice Oka said, “Though the affidavit does not disclose names of officials who gave the instruction to seek a transfer, we still accept your (government) apology. Otherwise in normal course, this court would have justified by initiating contempt action against your officials, which dented the dignity of this august institution. However, the dignity of this court rests on surer standards.”

The government had accused Justice Oka of harbouring 'serious bias' against the state machinery in matters pertaining to Noise Pollution and Silence Zones. The government had accordingly moved an application seeking transfer of all these matters from bench of Justice Oka to some other bench. Thereafter, Chief Justice Chellur had transferred all the matters to a special bench of Justice Anoop Mohta and Justice Girish Kulkarni. However, after the bar associations and former judges termed her 'ex parte' orders as 'bad in law', the Chief Justice had recalled her orders and remanded all the matters back to bench of Justice Oka.