NEW DELHI: On the CBI‘s allegation that a detailed order passed by a Madras high court judge in a corruption case in 2017 was made available only after he had demitted office, the Supreme Court directed the high court’s registrar general on Tuesday to submit a report detailing the date on which the judgment was received by the registry from the judge’s office and when it was made available to the public on the high court website.
A bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Augustine George Masih passed the order on a petition filed by CBI challenging the order passed by the single-judge bench of Justice T Mathivanan quashing a corruption case against an IRS officer.
“The contention of the petitioner is that on May 15, 2017 a single line order was pronounced by the learned judge and till the date on which the learned judge demitted office reasoned judgment was not available. We therefore direct the Registrar General of the high court to furnish the following information – the date on which the detailed judgment was received by the registry from the judge’s office and the date when the detailed judgment was uploaded,” the bench said.
The court also asked whether there was any administrative direction from the high court chief justice for fresh hearing of nine cases that were heard by the judge, and whether the case, that was the subject matter of the current special leave petition, was included among those cases.
The single-judge bench had quashed criminal proceedings in an alleged disproportionate assets case involving an IRS officer from the 1999 batch, who was working as the additional commissioner of Income Tax at the time of the registration of the FIR. The allegations pertain to the accumulation of assets and pecuniary resources amounting to over Rs 3.2 crore by the officer and his wife between Jan 1, 2002, and Aug 30, 2014. The HC had held that the proceedings appeared to have been initiated with mala fide intent, with the ulterior motive of personal vendetta.
A bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Augustine George Masih passed the order on a petition filed by CBI challenging the order passed by the single-judge bench of Justice T Mathivanan quashing a corruption case against an IRS officer.
“The contention of the petitioner is that on May 15, 2017 a single line order was pronounced by the learned judge and till the date on which the learned judge demitted office reasoned judgment was not available. We therefore direct the Registrar General of the high court to furnish the following information – the date on which the detailed judgment was received by the registry from the judge’s office and the date when the detailed judgment was uploaded,” the bench said.
The court also asked whether there was any administrative direction from the high court chief justice for fresh hearing of nine cases that were heard by the judge, and whether the case, that was the subject matter of the current special leave petition, was included among those cases.
The single-judge bench had quashed criminal proceedings in an alleged disproportionate assets case involving an IRS officer from the 1999 batch, who was working as the additional commissioner of Income Tax at the time of the registration of the FIR. The allegations pertain to the accumulation of assets and pecuniary resources amounting to over Rs 3.2 crore by the officer and his wife between Jan 1, 2002, and Aug 30, 2014. The HC had held that the proceedings appeared to have been initiated with mala fide intent, with the ulterior motive of personal vendetta.