After counsel remark, angry SC judge takes himself off PF case

But it had no effect on Bhushan who continued “Your Lordship can proceed against me. I stand by the charges.”

Visibly annoyed, Justice Agarwal offered to withdraw himself from the hearing. “If a former Law Minister and an eminent jurist like you makes such allegations, we shall not hear the matter. You are not behaving like a lawyer. You are arguing like a street urchin,” he said.

Chief Justice Balakrishnan himself had earlier recused from the matter after Shanti Bhushan questioned the propriety of his hearing the case. Justice Agarwal is the seniormost judge in the hierarchy after Chief Justice Balakrishnan.

Lawyers and senior counsels in the courtroom were taken aback when Justice Agarwal said: “Let there be a Constitutional crisis. Let the All India Bar boycott my court. At least, I will recuse and I will record it in the order.”

Other lawyers, appearing in the same matter, urged Bhushan to apologise and he finally agreed.The hearing resumed but didn’t last long. Bhushan made the submission that the Veerswami ruling was not binding and judges could not insulate themselves from prosecution on its basis. This again upset the Bench which explained how that judgment laid down that no HC or SC judge could be interrogated without prior consent of the CJI.

At this point, Shanti Bhushan’s son, advocate Prashant Bhushan, intervened, saying “Your Lordship is putting words into the mouth of the senior counsel (Shanti Bhushan) and blaming him.” Justice Agarwal was so annoyed that he decided not to hear the matter any further.

Detailing the courtroom exchange, Justice Agarwal, in his order, strongly disapproved of such behaviour from senior counsels like Shanti Bhushan. “We don’t approve of such behaviour from the member of the bar of this court. We feel that it is not conducive to go ahead with the hearing,” he noted and ordered that the matter be placed before the CJI for appropriate orders.