Moving to end a raging courtroom debate over a plea seeking an SIT probe into alleged judicial corruption in a case involving a blacklisted Lucknow medical college, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition Tuesday, saying the CBI FIR in the matter was not against any sitting judge of the court.

The controversy, a three-judge bench ruled, also settled the legal position that the Chief Justice of India (CJI) alone had the power to assign a case to a bench even if there were allegations against him in the matter.

Dismissing a plea by advocate Kamini Jaiswal, the bench of Justices R K Agrawal, Arun Mishra and A M Khanwilkar said: “There is an averment made in the writ petition that it is against the highest judicial functionaries; that FIR has been recorded. We do not find reflection of any name of the judge of this court in the FIR”.

Stating that the petition itself was forum-shopping and its contents amounted to contempt of court, the bench, however, said it was not initiating contempt proceedings against petitioner Jaiswal or her counsel Prashant Bhushan.

The court said the two petitions filed to seek an SIT probe the second petition was by NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) had brought the “entire judicial system… unnecessarily…into disrepute for no good cause or reason whatsoever”. It wondered how the petitioners had “presumed that there is an FIR lodged against any public functionary”.

The bench said, “instant petitions as filed are a misconceived venture inasmuch, as the petitioner wrongly supposes that investigation involves higher judiciary, i.e. this court’s functionaries are under the scanner in the aforesaid case… There cannot be any FIR even against the Civil Judge/Munsif without permission of the Chief Justice of the concerned court; and rightly, FIR has not been registered against any sitting judge.

Otherwise, on unfounded allegations, any honest judge to the core, can be defamed, and reputation can be jeopardised. No judge can be held responsible for what may or has happened in the corridors or for ‘who purports to sell them’.”

Reacting to the order, Prashant Bhushan later tweeted: “CBI registers FIR saying that a medical college has conspired and collected money to pay bribes to SC for favourable judgement. SC bench says there’s no allegation in FIR against judges and PIL filed for SIT monitored by top judges of Court is frivolous and amounts to contempt of court”.