Skip to main content

"Shameless" effort to tarnish image of Justice Sikri, who agreed to oust CBI topcop

Justice AK Sikri
Counterview Desk
In a scathing attack on the "Indian media", especially the high profile news portal "The Print", former Supreme Court judge Makandey Katju has said in a Facebook post  that the story of the appointment of Supreme Court judge AK Sikri to a "plum post" is nothing but "shameless" sensationalism. Calling Justice Sikri "outstanding, totally upright, extremely competent and hard working judge", Katju adds, "Yet our mostly rotten and shameless media has sought to tarnish him in mud and ruin his reputation."
"The Print" story, titled "Justice Sikri, whose vote decided Alok Verma’s fate, gets Modi govt nod for plum posting", tried to link the Narendra Modi government's recent decision to nominate Justice Sikri to the vacant post of president/member in the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal (CSAT) with his January 8 vote that proved crucial to the ouster of CBI director Alok Verma over corruption charges.
"The judge, second in seniority after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, will join the CSAT after his retirement as Supreme Court judge on 6 March", " "The Print" story said, adding, "The members of the prestigious tribunal are appointed for a four-year term, which may be renewed for one more term."
Justice Sikri's vote was important, since he was the third member of the high-level committee — apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leader of the single-largest party in opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, both of whom had diametrically opposite views on Verma’s future in the CBI — asked to take the politically-sensitive decision by the Supreme Court.
"Justice Sikri had the same view as the government at the meeting, where Kharge gave a strong dissent note", the story argued, noting, "It is learnt that CJI Gogoi replied to the government in the affirmative after checking with Justice Sikri." Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to CJI Gogoi last month, "apprising him of the External Affairs Ministry’s decision to nominate Justice Sikri to the coveted post and seeking his consent", it added.
The decision of the three-member panel to oust Verma from his post has attracted criticism, with former Supreme Court judge AK Patnaik, who was appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the preliminary probe by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) into complaints against Verma, questioning the same. Patnaik termed the decision of the Prime Minister-led selection committee “very, very hasty”, adding, “There was no evidence against Verma regarding corruption”.
Meanwhile, following the media oucry, Justice Sikri has withdrawn his decision to be appointed as CSAT president/member.

Text of Katju's Facebook post:

Has the Indian media no shame?
While there are many crooked and corrupt officials and authorities in India, there are also some upright, hard working and competent ones.
It is the duty of the media to criticise and expose the former, but it is also its duty to protect and praise the latter.
Markandey Katju
But see how the media has behaved with Justice Sikri?
Here is an outstanding, totally upright, extremely competent and hard working judge, for which I can personally vouch as I was his Chief Justice in the Delhi High Court when he was a puisne judge in that Court, and I knew him intimately. Yet our mostly rotten and shameless media has sought to tarnish him in mud and ruin his reputation.
As Chief Justice of Delhi High Court I had not only to do judicial work but also a lot of administrative work, and so after finishing my judicial work at 4 pm. I had usually to remain in the Court till about 8 p.m. doing administrative work. On finishing that I would often enquire if any other judge was still in his chamber? Invariably I was told that Justice Sikri was still there preparing his judgments, which he would do meticulously. I would go to his chamber and ask him to go home and not over strain and damage his health.
His reputation and integrity was impeccable. I never heard any complaint against him.
And yet this is the man whom much of our media attacked yesterday, like hounds baying for his blood.
So let me tell the truth.
It all began with a story in theprint.in about Justice Sikri's nomination by the Union of India to the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitration Tribunal (CSAT) for which Justice Sikri had given his consent.
This part of the story was no doubt correct.
But a half truth can be as bad, if not worse than a total lie, as stated in the Latin maxim 'Suppressio veri suggestio falsus' (i.e. suppression of the truth is equivalent to expression of a falsehood). The story published in theprint.in is guilty of suppressing the full truth, and presenting grossly distorted facts. So let me tell the full truth :
1. The CSAT is a body which decides service disputes of Commonwealth employees. Its sittings are only held as and when an application is received from a Commonwealth employee alleging breach of contract of service. There are no sittings on regular basis, and its members are not based permanently in England. They go the Tribunal when there is some case to decide. That usually happens only 2 or 3 times a year. No regular salary is paid to its members. So the Tribunal members are not like judges of the International Court of Justice who sit permanently at The Hague and are paid regular salary.
So to call it a ' plum posting' as was done in the story in theprint.in is a complete distortion and fake news. It is a low attempt by a journalist to sensationalise and peddle 'masala' to the public, which is the regular habit of most Indian journalists nowadays.
2. Justice Sikri had been nominated to the CSAT by the CJI after taking his consent in the first week of December 2018, that is, more than a month before the Supreme Court judgment on January 8, 2019 which set aside the order sending Alok Verma on leave, and directing the High Powered Committee to decide the matter within a week. It was only after that judgment that the CJI nominated Justice Sikri to the High Powered Committee.
So to link up the decision of the Committee to remove Verma from the CBI with Justice Sikri's consent given a month earlier to be on the CSAT, as the story in theprint.in has tried to do, is absurd, and is another example of the shoddy fake news which most of the Indian media has made its regular habit.
When he gave his consent to be on the CSAT in the first week of December 2018 Justice Sikri was not a member of the High Powered Commttee, and even the Supreme Court judgment of January 8, 2019 had not come. So how can it be insinuated, as the story in theprint.in has done, that the nomination of Justice Sikri to the CSAT was a quid pro quo for his decision to remove Verma from the CBI?
3. Justice Sikri yesterday withdrew his consent to be on the CSAT.
If the media has any shame left they will now apologise to Justice Sikri, whose image they tried their best to sully and besmear.

Comments

Joji Cherian said…
How Outstanding Justice Sikkri was witnessed when he sided with vindictive and corrupt Modi in ousting Alok Varma without giving him a chance to explain his position that is even when the third panelist was opposed to it.Now the judge who was supposed to have overseen the whole process comes out with a different story. Which judge we should trust?

TRENDING

US govt funding 'dubious PR firm' to discredit anti-GM, anti-pesticide activists?

By Our Representative  The Alliance for Sustainable & Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) has vocally condemned the financial support provided by the US Government to what it calls questionable public relations firms aimed at undermining the efforts of activists opposed to pesticides and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in India. 

Modi govt distancing from Adanis? MoEFCC 'defers' 1500 MW project in Western Ghats

By Rajiv Shah  Is the Narendra Modi government, in its third but  what would appear to be a weaker avatar, seeking to show that it would keep a distance, albeit temporarily, from its most favorite business house, the Adanis? It would seem so if the latest move of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) latest to "defer" the Adani Energy’s application for 1500 MW Warasgaon-Warangi Pump Storage Project is any indication.

Bayer's business model: 'Monopoly control over chemicals, seeds'

By Bharat Dogra*  The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has rendered a great public service by very recently publishing a report titled ‘Bayer’s Toxic Trails’ which reveals how the German agrochemical giant Bayer has been lobbying hard to promote glyphosate and GMOs, or trying to “capture public policy to pursue its private interests.” This report, written by Joao Camargo and Hans Van Scharen, follows Bayer’s toxic trail as “it maintains monopolistic control of the seed and pesticides markets, fights off regulatory challenges to its toxic products, tries to limit legal liability, and exercises political influence.” 

Fostered by those in power, hatred 'hasn't been' part of Indian narrative

By Osman Sher*  It is strikingly ironic that the current climate of prevalent hate in India is fostered not by a disruptive fringe of society, but by those in power—individuals entrusted by the citizens to promote their welfare and foster peace and harmony. It is their responsibility to guide and nurture the populace as if they were their flock. 

Muslims 'reject' religious polarisation of Jamaat-e-Islami: Marxist victory in Kulgam, Kashmir

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  In the international sphere, an orgy of imperialist violence and wars on multiple fronts is unleashed on the world's population to divide people on religious and nationalist lines, destabilise peace, deepen crises, and control resources in the name of nationalism and religion. Under the guise of fighting Islamic terrorism and exporting the so-called market-led Western democracy, imperialist powers are ghettoising Muslims to control natural resources in various parts of Asia, as well as in Arab and Middle Eastern countries. 

Militants, with ten times number of arms compared to those in J&K, 'roaming freely' in Manipur

By Sandeep Pandey*  The violence which shows no sign of abating in the ongoing Meitei-Kuki conflict in Manipur is a matter of concern. The alienation of the two communities and hatred generated for each other is unprecedented. The Meiteis cannot leave Manipur by road because the next district North on the way to Kohima in Nagaland is Kangpokpi, a Kuki dominated area where the young Kuki men and women are guarding the district borders and would not let any Meitei pass through the national highway. 

Can voting truly resolve the Kashmir issue? Past experience suggests optimism may be misplaced

By Raqif Makhdoomi*  In the politically charged atmosphere of Jammu and Kashmir, election slogans resonated deeply: "Jail Ka Badla, Vote Sa" (Jail’s Revenge, Vote) and "Article 370 Ka Badla, Vote Sa" (Article 370’s Revenge, Vote). These catchphrases dominated the assembly election campaigns, particularly across Kashmir. 

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.

NITI Aayog’s pandemic preparedness report learns 'all the wrong lessons' from Covid-19 response

Counterview Desk The Universal Health Organisation (UHO), a forum seeking to offer "impartial, truthful, unbiased and relevant information on health" so as to ensure that every citizen makes informed choices pertaining to health, has said that the NITI Aayog’s Report on Future Pandemic Preparedness , though labelled as prepared by an “expert” group, "falls flat" for "even a layperson".