No investigation of sitting judges in India? CJAR to challenge Supreme Court order on "corruption" in top achelons

By A Representative
Well-known legal rights group, Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), has declared it will challenge the Supreme Court decision to impose a fine of Rs 25 lakh, even as dismissing its petition seeking judicial probe into corruption at the higher layers of judiciary as "mala fide", intended to "defame" the Supreme Court.
In a statement, CJAR, which is led by top Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, has said that order, delivered by a bench consisting Justices RK Agarwal, A Mishra and AM Khanwilkar, "will not deter CJAR" and it will "challenge the order and fight it tooth and nail through every legal channel and remedy."
"We will be filing a review petition. This judgement is only going to strengthen the Campaign and energise us to carry forward our efforts and campaigns. We will also put forth our demand for an independent probe into the allegations of conspiracy and corruption through all available forums", it says.
"Strongly" disagreeing with the apex court order, CJAR says, the writ petition had sought "a fair and impartial investigation into the allegations of bribery of judges of the higher judiciary", pointing towards CBI investigation against Prasad Education Trust, especially the "criminal conspiracy" to pay large sums as bribes to "procure a judgement in favour of a medical college from the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court."
"As is widely known, the process for granting permission to private medical colleges has been steeped in corruption", averred CJAR, adding, "In this particular case, the Prasad Education Trust was seeking relief against the decision of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to deny medical college permission."
In fact, says CJAR, MCI had sought to "confiscate the caution money of the trust in view of the flagrant violations of the terms and conditions for operating a medical college", though adding, "The college was able to secure partial relief in the case."
According to CJAR, "An investigation by a government controlled agency like CBI into a case concerning the judges of the Supreme Court could seriously compromise the independence of the judiciary. In this case, there was particular concern as the matter of the medical college was being heard by a bench headed by the Chief Justice of India himself."
"Therefore", says CJAR, it "filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking that such a sensitive investigation should not be left in the hands of a government-controlled agency and should be undertaken by a Special Investigative Team headed by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and monitored by the Supreme Court itself."
CJAR prayed before the court that the petition should be heard by judges other than those who had served on the bench hearing the matter of the medical college, requesting that the petition be dealt with by the five senior most judges of the Supreme Court, excluding the CJI, so that the monitoring of this investigation would be "robust and fair."
A related matter was filed by senior advocate, Kamini Jaiswal, which was referred by the second senior most Judge of the Supreme Court, to a Constitution Bench comprising the five senior most judges of the Court. However, the Chief Justice intervened "and dealt with the petitions on the administrative side as well as the judicial side", says CJAR.
Insisting that "justice must not merely be done but it must also be seen to be done", CJAR quotes a 1997 Code of Conduct for High Court and Supreme Court judges to say, "The behaviour and conduct of members of the higher judiciary must reaffirm the people’s faith in the impartiality of the judiciary... whether in official or personal capacity."
Claiming that the the action of the Chief Justice "in this case clearly violate this salutary Code of Conduct", CJAR says, "Contrary to the charge against the campaign that this was a mala fide petition intended to defame the judiciary, CJAR had approached the court with the intention to protect the independence, integrity and reputation of the Supreme Court and the judiciary in general."
It alleges, the "Chief Justice of India has reportedly denied permission to CBI to register an FIR against a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court allegedly involved in this matter", raising the alarm that " the reported denial by the Chief Justice of India, and the judgement of the Supreme Court in the matter, has in effect ensured that there will be no investigation of sitting judges in this matter."

Comments

Plastic burning in homes threatens food, water and air across Global South: Study

By Jag Jivan In a groundbreaking study spanning 26 countries across the Global South , researchers have uncovered the widespread and concerning practice of households burning plastic waste as a fuel for cooking, heating, and other domestic needs. The research, published in Nature Communications , reveals that this hazardous method of managing both waste and energy poverty is driven by systemic failures in municipal services and the unaffordability of clean alternatives, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Economic superpower’s social failure? Inequality, malnutrition and crisis of India's democracy

By Vikas Meshram India may be celebrated as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, but a closer look at who benefits from that growth tells a starkly different story. The recently released World Inequality Report 2026 lays bare a country sharply divided by wealth, privilege and power. According to the report, nearly 65 percent of India’s total wealth is owned by the richest 10 percent of its population, while the bottom half of the country controls barely 6.4 percent. The top one percent—around 14 million people—holds more than 40 percent, the highest concentration since 1961. Meanwhile, the female labour force participation rate is a dismal 15.7 percent.

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.

From colonial mercantilism to Hindutva: New book on the making of power in Gujarat

By Rajiv Shah Professor Ghanshyam Shah ’s latest book, “ Caste-Class Hegemony and State Power: A Study of Gujarat Politics ”, published by Routledge , is penned by one of Gujarat ’s most respected chroniclers, drawing on decades of fieldwork in the state. It seeks to dissect how caste and class factors overlap to perpetuate the hegemony of upper strata in an ostensibly democratic polity. The book probes the dominance of two main political parties in Gujarat—the Indian National Congress and the BJP—arguing that both have sustained capitalist growth while reinforcing Brahmanic hierarchies.

The greatest threat to our food system: The aggressive push for GM crops

By Bharat Dogra Thanks to the courageous resistance of several leading scientists who continue to speak the truth despite increasing pressures from the powerful GM crop and GM food lobby , the many-sided and in some contexts irreversible environmental and health impacts of GM foods and crops, as well as the highly disruptive effects of this technology on farmers, are widely known today.

History, culture and literature of Fatehpur, UP, from where Maulana Hasrat Mohani hailed

By Vidya Bhushan Rawat* Maulana Hasrat Mohani was a member of the Constituent Assembly and an extremely important leader of our freedom movement. Born in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, Hasrat Mohani's relationship with nearby district of Fatehpur is interesting and not explored much by biographers and historians. Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri has written a book on Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Fatehpur. The book is in Urdu. He has just come out with another important book, 'Hindi kee Pratham Rachna: Chandayan' authored by Mulla Daud Dalmai.' During my recent visit to Fatehpur town, I had an opportunity to meet Dr Mohammad Ismail Azad Fatehpuri and recorded a conversation with him on issues of history, culture and literature of Fatehpur. Sharing this conversation here with you. Kindly click this link. --- *Human rights defender. Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vbrawat , X @freetohumanity, Skype @vbrawat

UP tribal woman human rights defender Sokalo released on bail

By A Representative After almost five months in jail, Adivasi human rights defender and forest worker Sokalo Gond has been finally released on bail.Despite being granted bail on October 4, technical and procedural issues kept Sokalo behind bars until November 1. The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) and the All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP), which are backing Sokalo, called it a "major victory." Sokalo's release follows the earlier releases of Kismatiya and Sukhdev Gond in September. "All three forest workers and human rights defenders were illegally incarcerated under false charges, in what is the State's way of punishing those who are active in their fight for the proper implementation of the Forest Rights Act (2006)", said a CJP statement.

Would breaking idols, burning books annihilate caste? Recalling a 1972 Dalit protest

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, I received an email alert from a veteran human rights leader who has fought many battles in Gujarat for the Dalit cause — both through ground-level campaigns and courtroom struggles. The alert, sent in Gujarati by Valjibhai Patel, who heads the Council for Social Justice, stated: “In 1935, Babasaheb Ambedkar burnt the Manusmriti . In 1972, we broke the idol of Krishna , whom we regarded as the creator of the varna (caste) system.”

May the Earth Be Auspicious: Vedic ecology and contemporary crisis in Ashok Vajpeyi’s poetry

By Ravi Ranjan* Ashok Vajpeyi, born in 1941, occupies a singular position in contemporary Hindi poetry as a poet whose work quietly but decisively reorients modern literary consciousness toward ethical, ecological, and civilizational questions. Across more than six decades of writing, Vajpeyi has forged a poetic idiom marked by restraint, philosophical attentiveness, and moral seriousness, resisting both rhetorical excess and ideological simplification.

Search This Blog