Bar Suspends 4 For Allegations Against Chief Justice Designate

The Supreme Court Bar Association yesterday unanimously decided to suspend senior lawyer and former Union law minister Shanti Bhushan, his son, Prashant Bhushan, also an advocate, and Kamini Jaiswal from membership of the professional for making highly motivated allegations against the senior-most judge of the apex court, Justice M.M. Punchhi.

Justice Punchhi, who has been a judge of the Supreme Court for eight years now, is to take over as the Chief Justice from Justice J.S. Verma on his retirement later this year. The decision was taken at a stormy meeting of the bar association under the presidentship of senior lawyer Kapil Sibal who defended former apex court judge Justice V.Ramaswamy in the countrys first impeachment case before Parliament some years ago.

 

The bar association also condemned the move of the committee on judicial accountability to get Justice M M Punchhi impeached on corruption charges. The committee, led by senior lawyers V M Tarkunde, Shanti Bhushan, Ram Jethmalani, Indira Jaising and others, has made a representation to the President which was handed over to the Chief Justice of India, who in turn, is reported to have referred it to a committee of senior judges of the apex court.

The bar association criticised the committee for bypassing it before going to the President. The committee has brought the association to ridicule before the public. The resolution, passed unanimously, further requested high constitutional dignitaries not to take notice of the irresponsible allegations made by the committee. It also expressed the abiding faith of its members in the integrity of Justice Punchhi.

Several charges have been made against Justice Punchhi. It is alleged that while a judge of the Supreme Court, he compounded a criminal case against a businessman Kashinath Tapuria, which was not compoundable under law. It is further alleged that the judges two daughters were allotted two plots of land from the discretionary quota of the then Chief Minister Bhajan Lal under suspicious circumstances.

When he was an inspecting judge in Punjab, he made a severe adverse report against a sub-judge who had given a judgment against his relative. He is also reported to have taken interest in a property matter in the Supreme Court where his relatives were involved. It is further alleged that he wanted to be on the bench which decided the issue of corruption charges against Justice V Ramaswami a few years ago. But this bid was aborted when his actions in favour of Justice Ramaswami was uncovered.

Yet another allegation is that he got a flat in the Supreme Court Cooperative Society in Delhi allotted in his name while he was a judge in Chandigarh and later sold it. Last evenings meeting was boycotted the association meeting stating that it was illegal to discuss the conduct of a sitting judge at a bar association meeting.

According to the committee, the bar association cannot discuss the conduct of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, as that would amount to contempt of court. It quoted the recent judgment of the court in the A M Bhattacharjee case (where the chief justice of the Bombay High Court had to resign following allegations of receiving large sums from a foreign publisher) to buttress its argument.

According to this 1995 judgment, when the Chief Justice of India is seized of the matter, to avoid embarrassment to him and to allow fairness of procedure, the bar should suspend all further actions.

The Punchhi affair is the second of its type in five years to embarrass the legal profession. The earlier one involved his erstwhile friend in the Punjab and Haryana high court, Justice Ramaswamy. His impeachment procedure was withdrawn on the judges assurance that he would resign. But he did not quit and took leave till he retired.