Skip to main content

Apex court "fails" to inquire into allegations against top HC judge with RSS background: SC advocate Prashant Bhushan

Justice Hemant Gupta, Prashant Bhushan
By Our Representative
Top Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan has regretted that, despite his complaint to the chief justice of India on March 3, 2017, against the former acting chief justice of Patna High Court Justice Hemant Gupta on allegations of “money laundering, acquiring properties by illegal means, possessing disproportionate assets”, no action has been taken by the top Indian judiciary.
Bhushan, in a statement as convener of the NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), says, instead, Justice Gupta “has been promoted as the regular Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court without any enquiry into the charges.”
Bhushan says, he has learnt that Government of India, too, was “seriously interested in the promotion of Justice Gupta who comes from an influential RSS background”, he adds, “The failure of the Chief Justice of India to constitute an in-house enquiry against Justice Gupta shows the futility of this in-house procedure”, about which a decision was taken way back in 1997.
Those who are attached with CJAR include former Justices PB Sawant and Justice H Suresh, veteran advocate Shanti Bhushan, well-known writer Arundhati Roy, senior advocate Mihir Desai, journalist Manoj Mitta, and several social workers and experts like Nikhil Dey, Annie Raja, Madhuresh Kumar, Vijayan MJ, Harish Narasappa, Koninika Ray, and Anjali Bharadwaj.
Accusing Justice Gupta of “seeking to influence” a officer of the Enforcement Directonrate (ED), Government of India, which was investigating the charges after submitting a “scathing” report, Bhushan says, the ED officer was asked “to come and meet him to resolve the matter”, yet “no such in-house enquiry appears to have been set up, despite a further reminder dated March 27, 2017 to the Chief Justice of India.”
Claiming that there is “considerable evidence” of the charges, including a “taped conversation between the Justice Gupta and the ED officer”, Bhushan recalls, a chief justices conference in 1997 “decided that an in-house procedure for investigating charges against sitting judges would be devised, in which the Chief Justice of India would constitute a committee of two Chief Justices of the High Court, and another High Court judge.”
The case shows, says Bhushan, that “often Chief Justices’ act on subjective considerations and on the basis of his own personal equations with the judge concerned”, adding, this underscoring “the need for putting in place a permanent full time commission, which is independent of the government and the judiciary, for investigating complaints against judges and taking action against erring judges.”
Pointing out that the need for such a commission has also been underlined recently by Justices Chelameshwar and Gogoi in their separate judgment in Justice Karnan’s case, Bhushan underlines, “Unfortunately, in the absence of such an independent mechanism, the only available resort is impeachment which is a political process.”
Insisting that impeachment should be “resorted to in some extreme cases”, Bhushan says, Justice Gupta’s “is a fit case for commencement of impeachment proceedings and we urge leaders of all political parties to come together to initiate this process to protect the integrity of the judiciary.”

Comments

TRENDING

'Very low rung in quality ladder': Critique of ICMR study on 'sudden deaths' post-2021

By Bhaskaran Raman*  Since about mid-2021, a new phenomenon of extreme concern has been observed throughout the world, including India : unexplained sudden deaths of seemingly healthy and active people, especially youngsters. In the recently concluded Navratri garba celebrations, an unprecedented number of young persons succumbed to heart attack deaths. After a long delay, ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) has finally has published a case-control study on sudden deaths among Indians of age 18-45.

SC 'appears to foster' culture of secrecy, does not seek electoral bond details from SBI

By Rosamma Thomas*  In its order of November 2, 2023 on the case of Association for Democratic Reforms vs Union of India contesting constitutional validity of electoral bonds, the Supreme Court directed all political parties to give particulars of the bonds received by them in sealed covers to the Election Commission of India. SC sought that information be updated until September 2023. 

How national chauvinism 'overtook' sport despite cricketing glory of World Cup 2023

By Harsh Thakor*  The recently-concluded cricket World Cup was a testimony or manifestation of the thrills, intensity, twists and turns in sport and evolution of the game of cricket. It carried on the trend of the World Cups of yesteryears. Possibly, this was the best ever Indian team in a World Cup, and arguably amongst the best ever to contest a World Cup.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Only 12% of schools RTE compliant: Whither 6% budgetary allocation for education?

By Ambarish Rai* Despite Indian state’s commitment of 6% GDP on education, the Finance Minister completely ignored right to education for children and strengthening implementation of RTE Act which makes education a fundamental right in her budget speech . The Right to Education (RTE) Forum, which is a collective of different stakeholders in education, condemns this neglect of a legal entitlement, which is unconstitutional and demand for overall increase in the budget to ensure improvement in learning outcomes and overall enhancement of quality education.

Savarkar in Ahmedabad 'declared' two-nation theory in 1937, Jinnah followed 3 years later

By Our Representative One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'Ambiguous policy': India late in advocating EVs as energy storage in national grid

By Shankar Sharma*  This is regarding the points raised by the Chief Electricity Authority’s (CEA's) advocacy for usage of electrical vehicles (EVs) as energy storage technology, and few associated issues . An objective reading of what he states should reiterate the enormously growing importance of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in our need to transition to a net-zero carbon scenario for the country.

Union Health Ministry, FSSAI 'fail to respond' to NHRC directive on packaged food

By Our Representative  The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has expressed deep concern over the adverse health effects caused by packaged foods high in salt, sugar, and saturated fats. Recognizing it as a violation of the Right to Life and Right to Health of Indian citizens, the quasi-judicial body called for a response from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regarding its selection of front-of-pack labels aimed at providing consumers with information to make healthier choices.