Justice Kapadia rubbishes Katju's allegations over corrupt HC judge

Former chief Justice of India, Justice SH Kapadia has rubbished the allegations made by Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju that he allowed a corrupt judge of the Allahabad High Court to continue despite having evidence against him. Justice Katju had alleged in his blog, that mobile tapping of the HC Judge had revealed that he was indulging in corruption. According to a Times of India report, “SH Kapadia on Tuesday said as CJI he could not be expected to do ‘any unauthorised job’, such as the mobile phone tapping mentioned by Kajtu. “You can’t expect the Chief Justice to do any unauthorised job”. Unless name of such judge is dropped, I cannot respond,” he said. Justice Kapadia told PTI, “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.” He added that unless he received a complaint in writing he could not do anything about it. In his blog, Justice Katju did not mention the name of the corrupt HC judge. “No letter was given to me giving any specific instance. 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 anyrhing,” Justice Kapadia added. [caption id=“attachment_280133” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Justice Katju in this file photo. PTI[/caption] Meanwhile Justice Katju is continuing with his allegations. He has now alleged that CJI Balakrishnan and Justice Kapadia (when he was a Supreme Court judge) almost allowed a corrupt High Court judge from Madras Bench to be elevated to the Supreme Court. He writes in a new blog post,

I may remind him (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 was a Judge of the Madras High Court when I was Chief Justice there, so I knew all about his bad reputation. Later, he was made Chief Justice of another High Court , and was being considered for elevation to the Supreme court. One day during lunch interval, I went to Justice Kapadia’s chamber and told him about the bad reputation of that Judge, giving details. I told him that I was not in the Supreme Court Collegium, but he was, and now it was for him to do whatever he thinks proper, and I have done my duty… Despite this, 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 the Tamil Nadu lawyers who produced voluminous documentary evidence of his corruption.

Katju’s latest revelation is going to raise more questions about the collegium system of judicial appointments, something that the government wishes to do away with. Yesterday, Chief Justice of India, Justice Lodha had defended the system , saying, that there was an attempt to defame the judiciary, adding, “Don’t shake the confidence of the people in judiciary. Collegium system has not failed.” However with Justice Katju’s constant allegations about how corruption is shielded in the judiciary, defending the current system is a tough task.