When K.G. Balakrishnan took over as Chief Justice of India on January 14, 2007, the eminent jurist, Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, termed it the ‘beginning of a new era’.
For Mr Balakrishnan, a Dalit, was seen as a person of legal brilliance and integrity, and his rise to the top was cited as evidence that the Indian system did work for even the most oppressed.
However, four years down the line, Mr Balakrishnan, who is now chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, is being haunted by allegations that his family amassed huge assets during his tenure as CJI.
Justice Iyer now regrets hailing Mr Balakrishnan’s ascension and analysts are now looking at the flip side of the Indian system-how vulnerable it is to unscrupulous manipulation by the powerful.
Mr Balakrishnan’s was a success story that conscientious Indians love to hear. Born on May 12, 1945, in the oppressed Pulaya caste in the small Thalayolaparambu village in Kottayam district of Kerala, Konakuppakattil Gopinathan Balakrishnan was a studious child who walked five km to school.
Though his parents, Gopinathan and Sarada, were not highly educated, they saw to it that their children got good schooling. The caste system in Kerala had been weakened by the Communist movement. Prejudices were still alive but there was a way forward for a studious young man with ambition. “At that time, the benefit of reservation was not available, but there were many people who helped me,” Mr Balakrishnan recalled in an interview later.
His mother Sarada says that as a child the former CJI was “always studying.” His guru, Advocate Kelu Nambiar, also had fond memories of the quiet youth who sat in his class in Ernakulam Law College with an attentive ear.
Mr Balakrishnan, a topper in the LLM exams, started his legal practice in 1968 and became a judge of the Kerala High Court in 1985, with timely help from the then Chief Minister, Mr K. Karunakaran. He entered the Supreme Court in 2000 surmounting several hurdles (here too, the former president, K.R. Narayanan’s intervention reportedly helped him) and rose to become Chief Justice in 2007.
Unfortunately, his steady rise to a position of dignity and power, the stuff of storybooks, has now been obscured by allegations about the shameful 'rags-to-riches' story of his family which does not give him any glory at all.
At the centre of the storm are his two daughters and sons-in-law as well as his younger brother, K.G. Bhaskaran.
P.V. Sreenijan, a KPCC member and a former Youth Congress vice president, had met Mr Balakrishnan’s daughter, K.B. Sony, while studying law. They were married later.
Surprising many Congressmen with the move, the KPCC handpicked the obscure Mr Sreenijan to contest from the Jnarakkal constituency in 2006, where he was trounced. At that time, he had declared an income of `25,000 and 24 gms of gold.
Mr Sreenijan, who hails from a poor family, now reportedly owns assets worth crores of rupees, much of it made during his father-in-law’s tenure as CJI.
Mr Sreenijan purchased 2.5 acres of a riverfront property in Thrissur in 2007 and is now building a resort there. Further, along with his wife, he also bought up prime property in Elamakkara in Kochi in 2009. The Congress leader also bought a flat in Edapally and a luxury car in 2007.
Mr Sreenijan, who has quit the Youth Congress and is now facing a vigilance probe, has claimed that all these were bought with the 'fees' he got as a legal consultant. There are not many takers for this. Likewise, the former CJI’s second son-in-law, M.J. Benny, an advocate, is also learnt to have amassed wealth after marrying Mr Balakrishnan’s daughter, Ms Rani, in 2006. They also met while studying law.
Sources said Mr Benny bought up prime land along the National Highway in Marad, a fast growing area in Ernakulam, and land in the name of Mrs Rani in Athirampuzha. Also under the scanner is Mr Bhaskaran, the younger brother of the former CJI, who has quit his post as special government pleader.
Mr Bhaskaran had reportedly bought up 50 acres of land in parcels on the Theni-Dindigul highway of Tamil Nadu along with other relatives. Mr Balakrishnan’s reaction to all these allegations has been a long and stoic silence followed by a terse statement that it was for his relations to explain how they made their
assets. His colleagues reaction has been laced with skepticism. “People cannot be faulted if they now doubt his many judgments,” said a senior advocate, who did not wish to be named.
At the same time, another senior advocate, K. Ramkumar, said there were no specific allegations against Mr Balakrishnan personally. “The Supreme Court system does not allow an individual judge to have his way,” said the advocate.
“This is just an attempt to tarnish him.” Whatever be the truth, the allegations of corruption by members of Mr Balakrishnan’s family raise the spectre of yet another powerful family using its connections to amass wealth. In the process, it’s the image of the hitherto august judiciary — untainted as every other arm of government is accused of wrongdoing — which has been dented.