New Delhi:
The Centre has now entered the debate on whether or not correspondence sent to the former Chief Justice of India, Justice KG Balakrishnan from Madras High Court mentioned former Telecom Minister A Raja's name.
The Law Minister today spoke out on the judge versus judge controversy, that's been brewing on the sidelines of the 2G spectrum scam. M Veerappa Moily says he had informed the Prime Minister about Madras High Court judge Justice Reghupathy's letter alleging that a minister had attempted to influence him.
Moily said today that Justice Reghupathy's letter did not mention the minister's name. "On receipt of the memorandum file (by MPs of various parties against A Raja) the reference was made to us and we wrote to the then Chief Justice of India. No minister name was mentioned. It is a matter of fact," Moily said. (
Watch: Former CJI did not mention Raja's name, says Moily)
The controversy centres around a criminal case in the Madras High court which was being heard by Justice Reghupathy in 2009.
Justice Reghupathy wrote to the then Chief Justice of Madras High Court, H L Gokhale, alleging that Raja had tried to influence him to rule in favour of a litigant through an advocate, Chandra Mohan.
Justice Gokhale says he sent his report along with Reghupathy's original letter that clearly named Raja to the former Chief Justice of India.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, he said, "The former Chief Justice of India has stated in his press conference that in my letter I did not mention the name of any Union Minister having talked to Justice Reghupathy over the phone to influence him. I may point out that Justice Reghupathy's letter was already with him and in the second paragraph Justice Reghupathy had specifically mentioned the name of minister Raja." (
Read: Was former Chief Justice of India aware of Raja influencing a judge?)
Justice Balakrishnan maintains that he had received a report on the issue from the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court and not a letter from Justice Reghupathy. He also says that the report did not mention the name of the minister.
"There was no question of [my] suppressing the report of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. I have not said that the judge [Justice Gokhale] had sent an incorrect or false report to me regarding the alleged incident or suppressed any facts. I only stated that in the report given to me, no mention was made of any Minister having spoken to the judge [Justice Regupathi] of the Madras High Court. In the report also, no name of any Minister was mentioned," the former Chief Justice of India said in a statement on Wednesday. (
Read: Balakrishnan drags in the law minister)
But Justice Balakrishnan mentioned only the report sent by Justice Gokhale - he does not say anything about the letter Justice Regupathi had sent naming A. Raja. And now the former CJI does not want to react to this controversy.
This case is perhaps a first for India's judiciary where they are questioning their own publicly.