Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju’s newspaper article that pressure from an alliance partner of the United Progressive Alliance forced three successive ex-Chief Justices of the apex court to give extensions to an additional judge of the Madras High Court despite an adverse Intelligence Bureau (IB) report, kicked up a political storm on Monday with disruptions in Parliament.
Mr. Justice (retd.) Katju told The Hindu that he stood by his statement (on Justice Ashok Kumar, though he has not named the judge) and said his timing for disclosing this was irrelevant. He had even walked out of a television programme when quizzed about the timing of his claims.
“What is relevant is whether what I said is true or false. These things are documented and there are IB reports and they can’t say it is false. That is why people are trying to divert the issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Congress steered clear of the controversy despite the charge that the party gave in to an ally’s demands to save its government.
