In an action-packed day at the Supreme Court, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan stormed out of court.
Bhushan expressed his displeasure at the refusal of the Bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra to hear him. The 5-judge bench of CJI Misra was hearing a petition filed by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Reforms (CJAR).
Bhushan was quoted saying by BarandBench.com: “You have heard persons who are not even parties to the case for an hour. If Your Lordships want to pass an order without hearing me, then do it.”
He reportedly stormed out with marshalls escorting him.
A bemused Bhushan tweeted after the proceedings: “Extraordinary proceedings in SC today in the case seeking SIT Investigation in medical college bribery case involving the CJI! CJI presided over a hand picked bench to override yesterday's order referring this case to top 5 judges. This despite having a direct conflict of interest.
The court proceedings were extraordinary in that the CJI was asking all kinds of lawyers who were not parties to say things against the order of Court 2, w/o hearing petitioner. He tried to justify his role in the medical college case & speak against 'impropriety' of Court 2.”
On Thursday, Justice Chelameswar had ordered setting up a 5-judge bench excluding the CJI to probe allegations of bribery to allegedly influence outcome of cases.
Another petition on the same issue came up for hearing and were set to be heard on Monday.
However, at 3 PM today, CJI Misra constituted a seven-judge bench to review the decision of Justice Chelameswar’s order for a probe yesterday. But, two judges recused themselves, making it a five-man panel.
Around 4PM, the 5-member bench panel headed by CJI Misra took the decision to annul the order passed by Justice Chelameswar ordering a probe into allegations of judicial corruption.
A five-judge bench declares CJI to be the master of the roster. Any judicial order passed by any other judge to set up a bench will be "ineffective and not binding," rules the Constitution Bench.
Order passed a day ago by Justice J Chelameswar's bench indirectly annulled.
The bench by the CJI didn’t include Justice Chelameswar who is the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court.
The CJI, meanwhile, deemed that he was the only one who could set up benches to look into cases, and no other judge, no matter how senior, could order a formation of a constitutional bench.
With inputs from agencies
