SC seeks status of complaint on ex-CJI
In an ironic turn of events the Supreme Court on Friday sought to know the “status” of a complaint sent to the vice-president against NHRC chairman Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, who headed the judiciary till May 2010, on the face of the serious allegations raised against him in a petition.
While keeping a public interest litigation against Justice Balakrishnan pending, a bench of Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia and Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar asked Attorney General Goolam E. Vahanvati to find out about the status of the complaint forwarded to the home ministry.
The complaint was submitted by M. Furquan, a journalist seeking CBI probe into the assets of Justice Balakrishnan and his kith and kin, particularly those acquired after by them after he became the Chief Justice of India in January 2007.
As soon as the PIL filed by advocate M.L. Sharma came up for hearing, the CJI asked AG who was present in the court, to inquire from the government about the status of the complaint and report back within two weeks.
Furquan’s complaint dated May 4, 2010 was though addressed to the President but was reportedly submitted to the vice-president due to some technical reasons.
“What is the status of the complaint,” the bench said while asking the AG to inquire about it from the government, during a very brief hearing on the PIL while Mr Sharma hardly got any chance to address the court.
The CJI told the AG that after the report was referred to the home ministry “what had happened to we don’t know”.
While the complaint, the copy of which is available with this newspaper, ad listed various allegations against Justice Balakrishnan and sought the probe by the CBI into the same, particularly with regard to the assets acquired by his kith and kin after he became the Chief Justice of India in January 2007, the Public Interest Litigation sought judicial inquiry into almost identical allegations.
The PIL further prayed the apex court to issue a direction to the government that till the inquiry against Justice Balakrishnan is over, he should be restrained from “holding/ performing” the function as chairman of the NHRC.
Both, the complaint and the PIL specifically referred to the assets acquired by Justice Balakrishnan’s sons-in-law P.V. Sreenijin and Benny and his two daughters married to them and his brother K.G. Bhaskaran.
The Kerala government has already ordered an inquiry into their assets while Sreenijin had resigned form the Youth Congress and Bhaskaran quit the post of the government pleader after the allegations surfaced in local media of Justice Balakrishnan’s home state.
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