SC slams Kripashankar for ‘bench hunting’
The Supreme Court on Friday came down heavily on former Mumbai Congress president Kripashankar Singh for allegedly indulging in a dubious exercise of “bench hunting” and declined immediate relief to him in the ongoing investigation in the disproportionate assets case against him.
A bench of Justices D.K. Jain and A.R. Dave took serious view of Singh filing a petition earlier but choosing to withdraw it conveniently from the list of mentioning cases on Thursday.
The top court told Singh’s counsel Ranjit Kumar that if his client was so eager to seek a relief, then why should he have withdrawn his petition from the list of mentioning cases meant for urgent hearing. And suddenly again choosing to mention the petition before the court a day later on Friday.
“We are very sorry. this cannot happen (in the SC). This is nothing but bench hunting. such practice is unacceptable” Justice Jain, heading the bench told Kumar while refusing to give an early date for urgent hearing and ordered that it would now be listed as a routine case.
The top court also rejected the plea for interim stay of the Bombay high court order for probe into the corruption allegations against Singh.
The Supreme court told Kumar that as a senior counsel, he should have advised his client against indulging in an exercise of “bench hunting”. In judicial term, bench hunting is considered to be a “dirty trick” by a petitioner to get his case listed before a bench.
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