Chief Justice Of India Asks Senior CBI, Delhi Police Officials To Prevent, Probe Malpractices By Supreme Court Registry Staff
[ By Bobby Anthony ]The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has asked senior superintendents of police (SSPs) and SPs from the CBI as well as the Delhi police to keep a strict watch on Supreme Court Registry staff in order to prevent wrongdoing and investigate corruption by them.The move came after several Supreme Court judges expressed surprise over suspect listing of cases before...
The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has asked senior superintendents of police (SSPs) and SPs from the CBI as well as the Delhi police to keep a strict watch on Supreme Court Registry staff in order to prevent wrongdoing and investigate corruption by them.
The move came after several Supreme Court judges expressed surprise over suspect listing of cases before particular benches.
Police officers will be deputed to the Supreme Court and hold ranks like additional registrar, deputy registrar, branch officers as well as senior court assistants to keep a watch over the lawyer-registry staff nexus.
In addition to detecting black sheep among court staff to prevent malpractices, deputed police officers to the revamped Supreme Court vigilance cell will undertake the job of detailed verification of character and antecedents of staff to be posted in important areas like courts as well as residential offices of judges, in order to ensure confidentiality and institutional integrity.
The police officials deputed will act as a layer between the Supreme Court and different investigating agencies. They will also look after investigative work in case of criminal complaints against registry staff.
The need for revamp the Supreme Court’s vigilance department and giving it a professional outlook arose when it was found that two court staff had changed the order of an SC bench purportedly to save industrialist Anil Ambani from appearing personally before the bench in a contempt case. They were both dismissed by the Chief Justice of India after Justice R F Nariman complained against them.
Recently, after a young lawyer had filed an affidavit alleging that fixers and middlemen had a field day in the Supreme Court to list cases in breach of roster allocation, as per the desire of certain litigants and their lawyers.
In response, the Supreme Court appointed Justice A K Patnaik as a one-man inquiry commission to probe if there was wrongdoing in the registry.