Calcutta high court judge, Soumitra Sen, facing impeachment for alleged misappropriation of case proceeds before his appointment as a judge, on Monday refuted the charge of corruption, but admitted before a probe panel through his lawyer that there was some “mix-up” of the funds by him in his personal bank account. Justice Sen’s
counsel Shekhar Naphade told a judicial committee appointed by the Rajya Sabha to look into the charges against him that the “mix-up”, however, did not make a charge of “misappropriation” warranting initiation of impeachment proceedings for his removal.
Mr Naphade told the panel comprising SC’s Justice B. Sudershan Reddy, Punjab and Haryana HC Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and lawyer Fali Nariman that the problem with Justice Sen was that he could not produce evidence before the “in-house” inquiry committee earlier in 2008, appointed by the then CJI.
The reason for this was that the banks kept the records only for eight years, while the matter related to 1993-94. This had made Justice Sen handicap to put his defence, he said.
But this was not “sufficient” to construe that Justice Sen as a court receiver, before his appointment as a judge, had misappropriated the amount of Rs 33.22 lakhs kept in his custody during 1993-95.
Since he had d returned the entire amount with interest and other costs (totaling around Rs 52 lakh) as directed by the Calcutta HC, the there was no case against him, Naphade argued. Even the division bench of the high court had gone into the allegations, based on a single judge’s order and ruled on December 25, 2007 that there was “no misappropriation even in part” by Justice Sen, who was appointed a judge in 2003.