SC Dismisses Two Officials For Tampering With Order Directing Personal Appearance Of Anil Ambani

The Supreme Court has summarily dismissed two court masters- Manav Sharma and Tapan Kumar Chakraborty- for tampering with the January 7 order directing personal appearance of Reliance Communication's Chairman Anil Ambani reports the Telegraph 

It is reliably learnt the CJI Ranjan Gogoi passed the order yesterday late evening, exercising his disciplinary powers as the administrative head of the court.

The controversy relates to the order passed by the bench of Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran ordering personal appearance of Anil Ambani in the contempt petitions filed by Ericsson.

Though the bench had specifically made it clear that personal appearance is not dispensed with, the copy of the order uploaded in the official website of the top court stated personal appearance is dispensed with.

Even in the summons issued to Ambani, it was stated 'personal appearance is dispensed with'.

This discrepancy was brought to the notice of the bench on January 10 by Dushyant Dave, senior counsel appearing for Ericsson. The bench headed by Justice Nariman was taken aback by this, and clarified that it had specifically required the presence of Anil Ambani. Thereafter, a revised copy of the order was uploaded.

This led to initiation of probe regarding the circumstances under which the wordings in the copies of the order uploaded in the website and served on Ambani happened to be changed.

It is learnt that preliminary enquiry revealed tampering, which led to the CJI Ranjan Gogoi exercising his powers to summarily dismiss the officers.

Ambani is facing the allegation that the failure of RCom to honour the unconditional undertaking made before Court to pay off the dues worth Rs.550 crores of Ericcson amounts to contempt of Court. RCom has missed two deadlines set by the Court to clear the liabilities.

Yesterday, the bench reserved orders in the matter.