MCI Scam: SC To Pronounce Order Tomorrow On Maintainability And Propriety Of Jaiswal's Plea For SIT Probe

After a Stormy hearing spanning one-and-half hours, a three judge bench of the Supreme Court today reserved it's order on maintainability and propriety of Advocate Kamini Jaiswal's plea for SIT probe under the supervision of a retired Chief Justice of India, in a matter relating to permission to a debarred  medical college to function. The Bench will pronounce the order tomorrow.

The newly constituted Bench comprises of Justice R.K. Agarwal, Justice A.K. Mishra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said it would pronounce it's order whether filing of two petitions with identical facts amounted to forum hunting and if the allegations made against the Chief Justice amounted to contempt.

Justice Mishra said prima facie the allegations amounted to a deliberate attempt to scandalise the institution and denigrate the system.

Towards the end Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan who appeared for Jaiswal said no direct allegation was made against the Chief Justice .He argued that why the petitions were filed is due to seriousness of the allegations in CBIs FIR.

"Although it does not name any acting judge directly but talk of bribes to influence a pending case...it's serious" he said.

Earlier Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan urged the bench to recuse but it refused to do so.

Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that the two petitions and the events happened last week had caused great damage to the institution. He also suggested it can be repaired by withdrawing the petitions.

After the unprecedented drama at the Supreme Court on Friday, Chief Justice Dipak Misra had constituted a three-Judge Bench to hear the Petition filed by Advocate Kamini Jaiswal, praying that the Court look into allegations of bribery against members of the higher judiciary in a matter relating to permission to a debarred  medical college to function.

Incidentally all the three Judges who heard the case today were part of the Constitution Bench which annulled Justice Chelameswar’s order to constitute a constitution bench of Five senior most judges of Supreme Court to hear the matter.

A Bench comprising Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer had, on Thursday, referred Ms. Jaiswal’s Petition to a Constitution Bench of five senior-most Judges of the Supreme Court.

However, on Friday afternoon, an ‘extraordinary’ Constitution Bench of the Apex Court had annulled this order, after an action packed hearing. Advocate Prashant Bhushan had, in fact, stomped angrily out of the CJI’s Court, after expressing his displeasure at the Bench’s refusal to hear him out.