In a fresh controversy, Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey Katju blamed the former Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, for pushing the elevation of a former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice as a Supreme Court judge.
Justice Katju, who did not name the judge, in an apparent reference to the collegium’s recommendation to elevate the former Karnataka High Court Chief Justice, P.D. Dinakaran, also found fault with another former CJI, S.H. Kapadia, for failing to prevent this despite being a member of the collegium.
Justice Kapadia has however, denied Justice Katju’s charges, saying, “No one had cited any particular example or instance to show that the judge (referred to by Katju) was corrupt. In such a case, how could I have acted upon,” Justice Kapadia asked.
On Sunday, Justice Katju, in his blog, had accused Justice Kapadia of not taking any action against a judge of the Allahabad High Court. Justice Kapadia has reacted saying that he did not bring any judge to the Supreme Court who was unfit.
In Monday’s blog, Justice Katju said, “I may remind Justice Kapadia that the Supreme Court collegium, headed by CJI K.G. Balakrishnan, and of which Justice Kapadia was a member, almost succeeded in bringing a totally unfit person into the Supreme Court. That judge (Justice Dinakaran) was a Judge of the Madras High Court when I was Chief Justice there, so I knew all about his bad reputation. “One day, during lunch interval, I went to Justice Kapadia’s chamber and told him about the bad reputation of that Judge, giving details. There was no use informing Justice Balakrishnan since it was he who was pushing for the judge’s elevation to the Supreme Court. After listening to me, Justice Kapadia thanked me, and said that in future also if I have such information I should pass it on to him,” he wrote.
Despite this, Justice Katju wrote, “The Collegium, of which Justice Kapadia was a member, recommended the name of that judge having questionable integrity, and he would have definitely been elevated to the Supreme Court but for Tamil Nadu lawyers who produced voluminous documentary evidence of his corruption.
Kapadia denies charges
Justice Kapadia said, “As I have said earlier that I have transferred a number of judges (on various charges) but I have to follow a protocol. Unless a complaint is received in writing from some judge of the same court or other court with specific instance no Chief Justice can take action,” Justice Kapadia said.
Reacting to Justice Katju’s charges that he (Kapadia) had authorised the tapping of the judge’s phones, Justice Kapadia said “You can’t expect the Chief Justice to do any unauthorised job.”
