Chief Justice of India’s Supreme Court dropped bombs as he said when judges complain to the CBI and IB, they are also not helping.
Justice Ramana said: “New trend developed in the country. No freedom given to judges. If judges complain to the IB and CBI, they are not helping the judiciary at all. This is a serious matter. I am saying it with a sense of responsibility.”
The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the case of the alleged killing of a Jharkhand judge while pulling up the probe agency for not responding to complaints of threats to judges.
The CBI took over the investigation into the Dhanbad judge murder case earlier this week.
Terming the incidents of judges being threatened as serious, the SC on Friday asked the states to file status reports on the security they are providing to the judicial officers.
The bench told Attorney General K K Venugopal that there are several cases which involve gangsters and high-profile persons and there are instances of judges getting threats or abusive messages.
“There are several cases in the country which involve gangsters and where high-profile people are accused. So, judges are threatened mentally also by sending messages on WhatsApp, SMS.
Complaints were made but CBI has done nothing. There is no change in CBI’s attitude. I’m sorry to observe,” the SC said.
“There is no freedom to the judges to even file a complaint,” the SC said, adding that police or the CBI is not helping the judiciary if such complaints are filed.
“This is a new trend in this country. If an adverse order is passed, then the judiciary is maligned. If judges file a complaint to the police or CBI, then they do not respond. The Intelligence Bureau and CBI are not helping the judiciary at all,” the CJI said.
The CJI added, “Look at this unfortunate case of the death of a young judge. This is the state’s failure. This area has coal mafias and security should have been provided to the society and the residences of judges.”
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District and Sessions Judge-8 of Dhanbad court, Uttam Anand, was out on a morning walk on July 28 when he was killed by an auto-rickshaw at Randhir Verma Chowk near the district court in the Sadar police station area.
CCTV footage showed that the judge was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled. Doctors at the hospital declared him brought dead.
In the wake of the Dhanbad incident, the SC had taken suo motu cognizance on the issue of safeguarding courts and protecting judges.
The CBI on Wednesday took over the investigation into the death of a 49-year-old judge. A 20-member team has been sent by the CBI to probe the matter.
In this backdrop of observation another Judge controversy death also came to lime light in social media .
Brijgopal Harkishan Loya was an Indian judge who served in a special court which deals with matters relating to the Central Bureau of Investigation. He was presiding over the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case, and died on 1 December 2014 in Nagpur.
Justice Loya death issue rose to limelight after Caravan Magazine published an interview with Loya’s family on 20 November 2016, in which they raised concerns over his death.
Loya’s sister claimed that Justice Loya was under immense pressure from the then Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Mohit Shah.
She even went on to allege that Justice Mohit Shah offered Justice Loya a 100 crore bribe to give a favorable verdict.
The family also raised concerns over the medical reports of Justice Loya, leading to a PIL in the Supreme Court of India
During a Press Conference, the Congress claimed that 2 other associates, with whom Justice Loya had shared the details of the case, died under mysterious circumstances as well.
One of them, was lawyer activist Shrikant Khandalkar and another retired judge Prakash Thombre.
Kapil Sibal of the Congress claimed that Khandalkar was thrown of a roof building in November 2015, while Thombre died “suspiciously while traveling in train from Nagpur to Bangalore on May 16, 2016, in Hyderabad”
The Congress asked for an investigation by an independent SIT monitored by the Supreme Court of India, claiming that even the post mortem report was manipulated.
Later, Dr RK Sharma, the former head of the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Department at the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences in Delhi, and the president of the Indian Association of Medico-Legal Experts for 22 years, ruled out heart attack as the reason for the death of Judge Loya.
Caravan reported “According to Sharma, the documents show signs of possible trauma to the brain, and even possible poisoning” indirectly claiming the case to be physical Assault This prompted Senior Supreme Court advocate, Prashant Bhushan to file an intervention plea in the Supreme Court of India, which was allowed by the apex court.
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Sohrabuddin Sheikh case : Suspicion of political interference intensified after the evidence handed over to the CBI from the state investigations showed that 331 phone calls by Shah to the concerned police officers had been deleted from the records. After media reports revealed the original records of calls from Amit Shah to Vanzara and other police officers executing the killings, the CBI acquired the original records, and ex-police chief O.P. Mathur, who was then Director of Raksha Shakti University, was indicted for deleting evidence.Amit Shah was subsequently named as the “prime accused” in the case.
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On 12 January 2018, Justices Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, the second- to fifth-most senior judges of the Supreme Court, held a press conference, in which they warned that the integrity of the court was under threat, and accused Dipak Misra of allocating cases selectively, based on personal preference.
With in two days that is On 14 January 2018, Loya’s son Anuj said in a press conference that the family had no suspicions over Loya’s death, clarifying that he had “had suspicions earlier but now it is over”.
The Loya family’s lawyer Ameet Naik said that the press conference was held to dispel any doubt over Loya’s death, and confirm that the family does not suspect that the death was the result of a conspiracy.
Despite this, Shrinivas Loya, Loya’s paternal uncle, argued that Anuj was under political pressure to not ask for a probe.
Some even questioned the need of former Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur meeting Loya’s son.
As it happens, the press conference was called by Anuj Loya after his meeting with the former Chief Justice. Dushyant Dave, arguing for an independent probe into Loya’s death, asked “Why would a chief justice of the high court call the boy and issue a statement, just days before retirement? Who was she trying to satisfy..
Having taken up the case Supreme Court of India reserved its order on March 17, 2018.
On April 19th, Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud read the judgement. The court observed the death of Justice Loya to be natural. Dismissing the 2 petitions, Chandrachud called them a result of “political rivalry” and termed them “scandalous” and “frivolous”.
Former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice AP Shah, said that he hoped the verdict would’ve been “different..
Congress the Opposition party of India ,along with leaders of 7 other opposition parties, held press conference to declare their intention of introducing an impeachment motion against Dipak Misra, a first against a sitting Chief Justice of India in history and in that 71 member of parliament had signed the notice.
After consulting legal experts, Venkaiah Naidu rejected the motion, saying that there was no “substantial and verifiable” evidence of wrongdoing. The Congress, however, said that he acted in haste.
The Congress was considering moving to the Supreme Court against this it was stated but no legal proceedings has been put in force as on date of this article
