Supreme Court: Dismissing the petition filed by advocate Kamini Jaiswal wherin it was alleged that that attempts were made to bribe some Supreme Court Judges in the matters relating to Medical admission scam, the 3-judge bench of RK Agrawal, Arun Mishra and AM Khanwilkar, JJ held that there was no question of registering any FIR against any sitting Judge of the High Court or of this Court as it is not permissible as per the law laid down by a 5-judge Constitution Bench in K. Veeraswami v. Union of India, (1991) 3 SCC 655 ,wherein this Court observed that in order to ensure the independence of the judiciary the apprehension that the Executive being largest litigant, it is likely to misuse the power to prosecute the Judges.
Noticing that the FIR mentioned by the petitioner did not reflect the names of any of the Supreme Court judges, the bench said:
“The entire judicial system has been unnecessarily brought into disrepute for no good cause whatsoever. It passes comprehension how it was, that the petitioner presumed, that there is an FIR lodged against any public functionary.”
It was held that there cannot be registration of any FIR against a High Court Judge or Chief Justice of the High Court or the Supreme Court Judge without the consultation of the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and, in case there is an allegation against Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, the decision has to be taken by the Hon’ble President, in accordance with the procedure prescribed in the said decision.
Upon the contention that a judicial order cannot be violated, and it could not have been rendered ineffective by the Constitution Bench decision of this Court dated 10.11.2017 and that by doing so the Chief Justice was being a judge in his own case, the bench relied upon the 3-judge bench decision in Dr. D C Saxena v. Chief Justice of India, (1996) 5 SCC 216, where it was held:
it was the duty of the Chief Justice to assign judicial work to brother Judges. By doing so, he did not become a Judge in his own cause. It is contempt to imply that the Chief Justice would assign it to a Bench which would not pass an order adverse to him.”
Regarding the contention that A.M. Khanwilkar, J. should have recused himself from the bench as he was a member of the Bench which disposed of the matter of Prasad Education Trust vide order dated 18.9.2017, the Court said that it was nothing but another attempt of forum hunting which cannot be permitted. The bench said:
“it is the duty of the Bench to take up such matter firmly; such unscrupulous allegations and insinuations cannot be allowed to be hurled by oral prayer made on behalf of the petitioner for recusal.”
To conclude, the bench said:
“Though it is true, that none of us is above law; no person in the higher echelons is above the law but, at the same time, it is the duty of both the Bar and the Bench, to protect the dignity of the entire judicial system.”
Coming down heavily upon the petitioner, who after arguing at length, at the end, submitted that she was not aiming at any individual, the Court said:
“If that was not so, unfounded allegations ought not to have been made against the system and that too against the Hon’ble Chief Justice of this country.”
Upon the question of unprecedented situation being created on 10.11.2017, the bench said:
“As Hon’ble Chief Justice of India had to assign it to a Bench, situation of dilemma was created for Hon’ble Chief Justice of India whether to assign the matter of CJAR to an appropriate Bench or to go by the judicial order by constituting a Bench of 5 senior Judges on 13.11.2017.”
The Court said that it deprecated the practice of forum hunting and that it cannot fall prey to such unscrupulous devices adopted by the litigants, so as to choose the Benches, as that is a real threat to very existence of the system itself and it would be denigrated in case we succumb to such pressure tactics. [Kamini Jaiswal v. Union of India, 2017 SCC OnLine SC 1322, decided on 14.11.2017]
