Supreme Court Dismisses Kamini Jaiswal’s Petition
The top court decided not to initiate contempt proceedings but said that petitioners indulged in “forum shopping”.
The Supreme Court today rejected a separate petition filed by lawyer Kamini Jaiswal for a court-monitored probe into allegations of bribes sought to influence cases in the apex court.
The top court decided not to initiate contempt proceedings but said that petitioners indulged in “forum shopping”. Court No. 2 — the bench headed by Justice Chelameswar— was not informed that a similar petition was pending before another bench, the apex court said in its order. “It’s regretful that such a petition was filed in the court.”
The earlier plea was filed by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability & Judicial Reforms before the bench of Justice AK Sikri.
The second petition was also the trigger for the last week’s events that made a five-judge Constitution bench overturn an order saying that the Chief Justice of India had the sole prerogative to allocate matters. The bench of Justice Chelameswar had passed the order to constitute a five-judge bench to the hear the matter.
Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, lawyers for the petitioner Kamini Jaiswal, had justified the order by Justice Chelameswar’s bench, saying while the CBI FIR doesn’t name any sitting judge, it alleged that bribes were sought to influence the outcome of the case about a medical college. That case was being heard in the apex court by a bench headed by the chief justice, they had said.
Here’s what Additional Solicitor General AS Chandhiok had to say on the Supreme Court’s order.