Making public the war within the ‘hallowed’ chambers of the judiciary, former Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir on Friday hit out against his successor for openly criticising his orders and demanded an apology if reports in the media were correct.
In an interview to a private news channel, Kabir, who retired on July 18, was not only critical about a section of media and lawyers for targeting him but also of his former colleagues.
Reacting to a recent comment by a Bench headed by CJI P Sathasivam terming “unfortunate” an order passed by a Bench headed by Kabir giving relief to Jaiprakash Associates, Kabir said, “I have been wrongly indicted by the CJI.”
Asked whether he intended to take any steps in this regard, he replied in the affirmative as he said he felt embarrassed and annoyed. He felt the Bench owed him an apology if the comments proved to be correct. According to Kabir, he spoke to the two judges on the Bench and surprisingly, both judges denied the remarks.
“I’ve requested the judges to give it to me in writing. If necessary, I will take it up with them… I am going to take some kind of positive steps,” he said with regard to action against the newspaper that published the news.
Kabir denied any leaf of the controversial NEET judgement. A lawyer wrote on a blog about the leak since most of what he predicted fell in place a good two hours before the decision arrived on July 18.
He claimed that Justice Dave’s dissent was not known to him till the time of decision. He also rubbished Dave’s conclusion upholding the validity of NEET, that due to paucity of time and lack of discussion, his judgement had to be short and quick.
Kabir clarified that Dave had the majority decision a good one week before the pronouncement date. He also suggested the judge did not quite get the issue in question, which was the authority of MCI to conduct a single window test.
“Justice Dave had sufficient time to look into the judgement and the very first opening lines set out what were the actual issues involved. Those issues were not addressed. He went by his personal emotion, if I can understand from his judgement, what he believed is a single window exam will be beneficial for students. But that was not the law,” said the former CJI.
Kabir maintained that the charge of corruption was exaggerated, saying “By and large judiciary is above board.”
He also felt the collegium system of appointing judges, against which serious doubts have been raised of late, is the “best we can have under the present circumstances.” Kabir brushed aside criticism by former CJI JS Verma, architect of collegium concept, stating he ought not to pass such comments after demitting office.