The former Union Law Minister and senior advocate, Shanti Bhushan, on Monday moved the Supreme Court for a directive to initiate contempt proceedings against the former Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, for allegedly fabricating a compact disc containing his conversations with him and party president Mulayam Singh.
In his application, Mr. Shanti Bhushan said: “The alleged contents of the CD have been fabricated with a malicious intention to interfere with the administration of justice as it tries to create an impression that a particular Bench of the Supreme Court [one of the judges of this court has been named in the CD by the contemnor] can be managed through the informant's son [Prashant Bhushan].”
“The object behind fabricating the said CD is quite sinister as the attempt is apparently to derail the hearing of all important cases being/have been argued by the informant's son — before that particular Bench [of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly] — and thus, interfere with the administration of justice and to attempt to interfere with the continued hearing/judgment in important cases of public interest in which judgment has been reserved by that particular Bench,” he said.
Mr. Shanti Bhushan pointed out that one of the public interest cases in which judgment was reserved was that relating to the release in the public domain of the contemnor's tape-recorded conversations. “The attempt seems to be to try and make the judge recuse himself from the case by adding his name and suggesting that Mr. Prashant Bhushan is on very good terms with the judge and is in a position to influence him. This is totally false, and the scurrilous suggestion is a clear attempt to embarrass the judge and to interfere with the administration of justice.”
Quoting from the reports by two renowned laboratories to show that the CD was fabricated through splicing of different conversations, he said: “Once it becomes clear that the CD is fabricated, the question then arises as to who has fabricated this CD.”
He said: “It seems clear that Mr. Amar Singh must be involved in this fabrication as he states in the purported conversation that Mr. Shanti Bhushan is sitting with him. The fact of the matter is that the informant has never met the alleged contemnor, and, therefore, if this sentence is continuous and is, as it seems to be in Mr. Amar Singh's voice, then clearly Mr. Amar Singh has either engineered the CD or has cooperated in its fabrication. Thus, he has been made an alleged contemnor in this information which is being led before this court.”
He said: “Further, such a CD could only have been made with the help of various other persons, including experts in the field, and this is the result of a clear conspiracy. It is thus imperative that an investigation be directed to be done by a special investigation team which will… establish who are the persons involved in this serious conspiracy to interfere in the administration of justice.”
The applicant said “the act of fabricating the CD and then sending it anonymously to various news channels and newspapers is a serious attempt to bring not only the informant but also the judiciary under a cloud, and needs to be taken serious cognisance of.”
