'Is This The Way To Argue?Saying That Court Will Repent In Future?': Supreme Court Pulls Up Lawyer Of Unitech Accused

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah on Wednesday expressed unhappiness with the nature of arguments made by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh on behalf of the Chandra brothers in the Unitech case.

Singh submitted that the Supreme Court was passing ex-parte orders to take over the running of companies. Referring to the Supreme Court's orders in Amrapali and Supertech cases, Singh asked "how many companies will this court run?".

Singh also submitted that the Court should not pass any orders for which it might "repent later in the future".

Extremely miffed with these submissions, Justice Chandrachud told Singh not to make allegations against the Court.

"Before you make allegations on this court, what is this language? Is this a way to argue? Saying that the Court will repent in future for its order?" Justice Chandrachud said.

Justice MR Shah also joined Justice Chandrachud to convey his unhappiness over the submissions made by Singh, who also happens to be the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association.

"Don't raise your voice and make allegations against the court. We never expected this from Mr Vikas Singh," Justice Shah said.

When Justice Chandrachud remarked that Singh may not have been properly briefed by his clients, Singh replied "I have taken a lot of briefings".

Singh demanded that he be shared a copy of the report of forensic auditors Grant Thornton to make a proper defence. However, the bench declined the request stating that it was a still a matter of ED investigation. The bench pointed out that the accused is not entitled to case diary documents at the stage of investigation.

The Bench then went ahead and directed the suspension of Tihar Jail officials who are found to have extended undue help and assistance to ex-Unitech promoters Sanjay Chandra & Ajay Chandra while they were in jail. Earlier, the Court had directed shifting of Chandra brothers from Tihar & ordered probe by Delhi police.

The Court had earlier directed the shifting of Chandra brothers, who are in custody in a money laundering case involving Unitech company, from Tihar to Mumbai's Taloja jail, after an enquiry report of the Enforcement Directorate revealed that they had been engaging in several illegal activities within Tihar jail with the connivance of certain officials.

On August 26, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah had directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to carry out a probe against the Tihar jail staff on the basis of the ED Report.

Today, in the light of the report submitted by the Delhi Police Commissioner, the bench ordered that the officials who have been prima facie found to have connived with the Unitech accused be placed under suspension pending enquiry. The bench was also told that a criminal case has been registered against the complicit staff under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

On August 26, the Court had noted that the ED's report had contained specific details of the manner in which the premises of Tihar Central Jail have been used- (1) in engaging in illegal activities by flouting the jail manual; (2) making efforts to dissipate the proceedings; (3) influencing witnesses and attempting to derail the investigation.

The Court had also observed that these illegal activities being carried out in Tihar jail premises have "the propensity to undermine the authority of the court as also to derail the investigation which has been ordered by the Enforcement Directorate, including but not confined to the PMLA".

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