AP Judges caught copying in law exam

The only hope is that the ‘caught red-handed’ scenario does not later turn into ‘ no evidence found’ and the judges get reinstated.  They are only suspended pending an inquiry, not really dismissed permanently!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Copy-cat-judges-suspended-by-HC/articleshow/6435474.cms#ixzz0xgTB9rFM

Aug 26, 2010, 12.59am IST

HYDERABAD: Five judges belonging to the state's subordinate judiciary were suspended by the AP High Court on Wednesday for allegedly copying while writing their LLM examinations at the Arts College of Kakatiya University in Warangal on Tuesday.

The judges were doing this course under distance mode from Kakatiya University as the degree would help them gain some increments in their careers.

Those placed under suspension include K Ajitsimha Rao, senior civil judge, Ranga Reddy district, M Kistappa, principal senior civil judge, Anantapur, P Vijayendar Reddy, second additional district judge, Ranga Reddy district, M Srinivasachary, senior civil judge in Bapatla of Guntur district and Hanumantha Rao, the additional junior civil judge in Warangal.

They were allegedly caught red-handed in the act of copying on Tuesday by the authorities and upon receipt of this information, the HC suspended them from service pending an inquiry. The HC would soon launch disciplinary proceedings against all these judicial officers, sources said.

How ex-CJI's sons got prime plot they had never bid for Read more

Still believe in the white lie that Indian judiciary is highly respected in the world?  By whom?  Indian judiciary itself!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/How-ex-CJIs-sons-got-prime-plot-they-had-never-bid-for/articleshow/6428954.cms#ixzz0xcCgO9gZ

Aug 25, 2010

NEW DELHI: The two sons of former chief justice of India Y K Sabharwal, who are being probed for their previous business deals, suddenly came to buy a Rs 122 crore property in Lutyens' Delhi four months ago, thanks to a series of controversial orders passed by the Delhi high court.

Chetan and Nitin Sabharwal, together with their partner Kabul Chawla, chief of real estate company BPTP, turned out to be the ultimate beneficiaries of high court orders passed since 2006 in connection with the auction of the 2.70-acre property at 7 Sikandra Road.

An appeal challenging the April 2010 sale deed revealed that the three partners had not participated in an auction in September 2006 on which a two-judge bench declared Triveni Infrastructure the highest bidder. Triveni was required to pay 25% of its bid amount, Rs 117 crore, within a week and the balance within three weeks thereafter, subject to the condition of the property being converted from leasehold to freehold.

But Triveni became liable to pay the 75% component only in February 2009 as it had taken so long for the property to be converted to freehold. It was then that a succession of single-judge orders, in breach of the schedule laid down by the larger bench, resulted in the payment being finally made, with a Rs 5 crore penalty, in April 2010, that too by the two Sabharwals and Chawla although they had no formal stake in Triveni.

The appeal being heard by a special bench headed by Justice A K Sikri shed light on the various ways in which the 2006 order had been bypassed, particularly by Justice Manmohan Singh, leading to a windfall for the Sabharwal brothers and Chawla:

* When the owners of the property filed a contempt application against Triveni for its failure to pay the balance in February 2009, Justice Manmohan Singh gave more time to the defaulter directing that it would have to pay Rs 3 crore by July-end and Rs 85 crore by October-end. Later, he extended the time further to December-end with a penalty of Rs 5 crore.

* The repeated extension of the deadline by Justice Manmohan Singh was contrary to the division bench's direction that if the highest bidder failed to make the payments on time, the property would have to be sold to the next highest bidder, Prime Commercial.

* In June 2009, Justice Manmohan Singh allowed a four-day old company, Angle Infrastructure, to come in place of Triveni for paying the balance and to take over the property. The owners of the property appealed against this order as it had been passed without any notice to them.

* A week before the expiry of the December 2009 deadline, Justice Manmohan Singh gave a fresh extension to Angle, this time by five months. He also granted Angle's request to introduce the condition that it would be required to pay the balance only when the owners were in a position to deliver immediate possession of the property. Most of the owners challenged this order, again because it had been passed without any notice to them.

* A month before the expiry of the May 2010 deadline, Triveni and Angle filed a joint application requesting that the balance be allowed to be paid by the Sabharwals and Chawla and that the property be registered in their names. Since the Sabharwal brothers and Chawla appeared in the court with demand drafts of the balance amount, Justice Rajiv Shakdher directed the owners on April 20 to execute the sale deed within two days.

That is how the Sabharwal brothers and Chawla acquired the property from an auction in which they had not participated at all. The appeal filed subsequently by the second highest bidder, Prime, challenged the manner in which the court had granted undue concessions to Triveni and deprived it (Prime) of its entitlement under the auction terms to buy out the property. Seeking a fresh auction of the Sikandra Road property, Prime offered to pay Rs 150 crore in keeping with the appreciation of the property value in these four years.

The real estate business partnership between the Sabharwal brothers and Chawla has been the subject of income tax probe following allegations that they had unduly benefited from the 2006 sealing drive against commercial properties in residential areas of Delhi launched by the then CJI, Justice Y K Sabharwal.

Fines should be imposed by judiciary like in this case

One of the major problems in Indian courts is the ease with which cases can be filed, the ease with which they get adjourned, and the relative difficulty with which costs or fines are imposed on frivolous or false litigation.  If judiciary needs to restore faith, they will need to impose heavy fines on frivolous litigants and dilatory tactics.  Else judiciary will remain a relief-giving mechanism who no one fears!

http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/hc-blow-to-governor%E2%80%99s-office/178865.html

Rs 1 lakh fine for delaying hearing

THE High Court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on a petitioner for not pursuing the petition it had filed in 1999.

Justice DV Shylendra Kumar imposed the fine on Electronics Research Limited, which had challenged the custom duty of Rs 3.88 crore, citing that the Customs department had levied additional customs duty on it. The second additional city civil court had rejected the application, after which the petitioner had moved the High Court.

When the judge called the petitioner’s advocate for hearing, the junior advocate sought an adjournment.

The judge refused to give the adjournment and imposed the fine.

Judge who uncovered scam in Bangalore court is transferred

Such is the secrecy and protection afforded to powerful vested interests who control the judiciary from behind, that no case of judicial corruption can ever be investigated thoroughly and properly.  Read news below:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=BGMIR/2010/05/14&PageLabel=6&EntityId=Ar00600&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T

A Gurumurthy, the judge in whose court a scam involving court officials, banks and financial institutions to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees was unearthed, has been transferred.

    Though transfers are routine, with four notifications on April 24 transferring District Judges, Fast Track Court Judges, Senior Civil Judges and Civil Judges, this transfer comes just three weeks after a departmental inquiry under the judge was initiated.

    Gurumurthy, the XIV Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (Mayo Hall), is one of the 33 judges of the ‘Senior Civil Judges’ cadre who has been transferred, according to the notification (no GOB(I).4(2)/2010) issued by the Registrar General of the High Court.
    The notification says he will take charge as the Senior Civil Judge and JMFC, Ramdurg, Belgaum district, from May 24.

PROBE CURTAILED
It is feared that with the transfer of the judge, the departmental inquiry would suffer. It is learnt nearly a month after the inquiry was initiated in the first week of April, Gurumurthy submitted his report. But the same was sent back to him with directions for further probe. Now with less than two weeks for his transfer, Gurumurthy’s report may not be complete as the XIV ACMM has more than one lakh cases before it, according to sources.

    Registrar General of the High Court, R B Budihal refused to talk about the issue. His office replied he would not entertain any journalist seeking information on the issue.

    Bangalore Mirror had, on May 4, reported how thousands of citizens were cheated using fake seals of judges’ signatures and fake court papers for serving non-bailable warrants (NBW) on them.

    Some 70,000 fake NBWs were said to have been issued in the last three years to people across the country.

    Three officials of the court - Tulasamma, the sirastedar, Balasubramani, the bench clerk, and Narasaiah, a case worker, who allegedly ran a ‘parallel court’ in collusion with banks and their advocates, were suspended.

    Banks and court staff colluded to issue NBWs to borrowers whose cheques had bounced. After these fake NBWs were issued, the banks, either with the help of police or musclemen, forced the debtors to pay up the entire loan amount.

    As per the law, no sworn statement of any bank manager has been recorded. The fraud also involved sending fake NBWs to people who were not under the jurisdiction of the court, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Allahabad and Bihar.

If only it were true!

The following statements by outgoing Chief Justice of India will not have many believers, except maybe in Supreme Court itself!  The last sentence is really bothering, if people do not understand working of judiciary, is it really a good thing?  Won’t it be good to have judiciary under ambit of RTI -- I know it already is except Supreme Court, but just try filing an RTI on any court and see for yourself.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/corruption-in-judiciary-is-minimal-not-very-serious-cji/616901/

Outgoing Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan says corruption in judiciary was a cause of concern but the situation was "not very serious" and that it was actually "miniscule" considering the number of cases and judges.

"Corruption will always bother anyone. But considering the number of cases and judges, it is actually miniscule.

Situation is not very serious," the CJI said in an interview to CNN-IBN on Monday on the eve of demitting office after a tenure of a little over three years.

However, the CJI appeared to be haunted by Justice Dinakaran issue and expressed his disappointment over the motive even imputed to him on this score while maintaining that the apex court collegium/ judges work systematically in harmony with the norms.

"I felt sorry that some motives were attached to me as well. We work systematically following all the norms," he said.

On being asked whether the credibility of judges did not get erosioned as a number of them accept government posts after their retirement, he said it was the government which wants us there.

"There are so many tribunals that have to be manned by retired judges of the Supreme Court. There is TDSAT etc.

People think that SC judges may favour the government to get these posts, but now actually its other way. The government wants us there," the CJI said.

The CJI, who recently gave verdict on high-voltage Ambani brothers gas dispute, said that he never felt any pressure while adjudicating any case.

"I have never felt any pressure in any case that I have heard," he said adding that "people do not understand the working of judiciary. No politician will like to come and meet a judge. He will be in trouble, suppose the judge expose him, his political career can be in danger."