Supreme Court Bench To Hear Petition Seeking Probe Into Bribery Allegations

The Supreme Court of India, by the order of the Chief Justice of India Justice Dipak Misra, has named a three-judge bench to hear a petition seeking an SIT probe into allegations that bribes were sought by a retired high court judge to settle a case in the apex court.

The PIL, filed by lawyer Kamini Jaiswal, was heard earlier in the week by a bench headed by the second-most senior judge in the apex court, Justice J Chelameswar, who referred the petition to a Constitution bench of five senior most judges of the court. The bench was to hear the matter on Monday.

However, on Friday, the Chief Justice Of India, along with four other judges, annulled Justice Chelameswar's order while hearing another petition in the same matter filed by non-governmental organisation CJAR.

The hearing in that case saw heated arguments and at one point Advocate Prashant Bhushan, arguing that case for CJAR, walked out of the court saying that he had not been giving a chance to speak.

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The entire controversy relates to a CBI investigation and the arrest of a retired Orissa High Court judge and others. The were allegedly seeking bribes, offering to settle the matter of medical college registration in the Supreme Court.

The petitons by Kamini Jaiswal and CJAR seek that the bribery allegations should be probed by a court appointed Special Investigative Team headed by a retired Supreme Court judge.

Jaiswal's petiton is listed in Court No 8 in front of the bench of Justice RK Agrawal, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Arun Mishra. It will come up for hearing on Monday at 3:30 pm.