Comments attributed to a CJI bench an 'indictment': Altamas

Days after retiring as Chief Justice of India, Altamas Kabir said today that the recent comments attributed to a bench headed by his successor Justice P Sathasivam amounted to his "indictment" but he had been subsequently told that the bench made no such observations.
Kabir, who demitted office on July 18, spoke on controversies surrounding his tenure including the comments attributed to the bench headed by Sathasivam which had purportedly said that the orders in the Jayaprakash Associates case should not have been passed by a bench headed by him.
The bench headed by the former chief justice was dealing with the matter of payment of Rs 100 crore fine that the Himachal Pradesh high court had slapped on the company in a particular case.

The bench comprising Justice Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi in its order on Wednesday while hearing the Jayaprakash Associates case purportedly said that these orders should not have been passed.
Referring to the news report by a leading newspaper in this regard, Kabir said he had spoken to Justice Sathasivam and also Justice Gogoi after it appeared.
"...I spoke to Chief Justice and he said, I had never said this. I also asked Justice Gogoi, who is a partner on this bench, he said certainly not. We have mot said this at all.

Now I am going to take some kind of positive steps. I've requested the judges to give it to me in writing, if necessary I will take it up with...(the newspaper)," Kabir told CNN IBN's Karan Thapar on Devil's Advocate programme.

Kabir agreed with the questioner that the remarks by the bench headed by Sathasivam amounted to an "indictment" but asserted it is not a "correct indictment."
"I have been wrongly indicted by the CJI," he said.