The Kerala High Court has served a memo of charges on NV Raju, the judge who had failed to record the statement of con woman Saritha S Nair, chief perpetrator of the infamous solar scam, even after listening to her for 20 minutes on July 20, 2013 when he was Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (Economic Offences) in Kochi.
The memo was served as per the instructions of the High Court Administrative Committee on the basis of the finding that the judge had committed serious violation of rules and procedural lapses by not recording Saritha’s statement even after listening to her entire statement and by asking her to present her statement in writing.
The judge has been given 15 days’ time to furnish his explanation for the lapses and further proceedings would depend on his explanation. Failure to furnish explanation within the allotted time would invite disciplinary action. The High Court had the powers to demote or even remove the judge if the lapses were established, legal experts said.
The Vigilance Registrar of the High Court, who had looked into the matter on the basis of complaints regarding this, had concluded prima facie that the judge had committed procedural lapses and violation of rules. The decision to issue memo of charges to Judge Raju was taken by the court’s administrative committee as early as in July, 2014.
The memo of charges was issued after the delay had triggered a controversy. The inquiry was carried out by the Vigilance Registrar on the basis of the complaints filed by State BJP general secretary K Surendran and A Jayasankar, general secretary of the Kerala chapter of the Indian Association of lawyers.
The Administrative Committee headed by then Chief Justice Manjula Chellur had in July, 2014 rejected the explanation furnished by the judge and entrusted Justice PN Raveendran, a member of the committee, to consider follow-up action, who prepared the memo of charges against Judge Raju, currently the Chief Judicial Magistrate in Kasaragod.
The High Court Vigilance Registrar’s inquiry was into the non-recording of Saritha’s statement, the situation in which her complaint was heard in closed court room, why she was disallowed to communicate with her lawyer, the reason for the statement not becoming part of the case file and the judge’s criticism of the media which reported that day’s proceedings.
Saritha, who was in judicial custody in the solar fraud case at a prison in Pathanamthitta, had told the judge when she was produced before him on July 20, 2013 that she wanted to make a confidential statement. Following this, Judge Raju listened to what she had to say for 20 minutes in a closed court room.
After listening to her, he instructed her to give her statement in writing. When his conduct drew flak from various sides, he criticized the media for the reports that had come out in this regard. The judge’s action of disallowing Saritha’s lawyer from taking her statement in writing had also caused a controversy.
After she got the judge’s instruction, Saritha had prepared a very controversial note from Pathanamthitta prison in which she had allegedly described how various top leaders including Congress Ministers, MlAs and former ministers had exploited her sexually when she was in the business of solar power plant installation.
The controversy had worsened after Saritha was transferred to the women’s prison at Attakkulangara in Thiruvananthapuram citing security reasons and this was seen as a ploy to make her write a ‘harmless’ statement. As expected, Saritha had then written a three-page statement which did not contain the references she had allegedly made in the first note.
Saritha’s so called prison note had stirred up a controversy last week after reports quoted it as saying that Jose K Mani MP, son of bribery-accused Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani, was among the political leaders who had exploited her sexually.