Courting controversy

The CBI has submitted its report in the cash at judges door scandal,but this isnt the first controversy to hit the Punjab and Haryana High Court

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons,most notably the infamous cash-for-judge case last year. But its problems date back way further. A look at some of the controversies that involved this high court:

Impeachment proceedings against Justice V Ramaswami: The High Court faced its first major embarrassment in 1993 when,for the first and the only time in the history of the Indian legal system,impeachment proceedings were initiated against a judge. The proceedings,which remained unsuccessful owing to the abstention of Congress MPs,were initiated against Justice V Ramaswami,former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court,who later retired as a Supreme Court judge. Three audit reports had made grave allegations against the judge,suggesting he had used public funds for personal gains during his tenure as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The matter had also come to the notice of the then Chief Justice of India,Sabyasachi Mukherjee,who requested V Ramaswami to go on leave.

Acting under Section 3 (2) of the Judges (Inquiry) Act,1968,the Speaker of the Lok Sabha appointed a committee comprising three judges,who framed a number of charges against Ramaswami. They left it for the former CJI to consider whether V Ramaswami should be allowed to sit on the Supreme Court Bench. Proceedings for impeachment were fixed for May 10,1993. All political parties had issued whips and finally the Congress also issued an oral whip to all its party members to abstain from voting on impeachment.

Venkatachaliahs walkout: The next time the High Court hit the headlines was in 1993 when former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah walked out from a function organised by the High Court Bar to honour him. He,along with Union Law Minister H R Bhardwaj and several chief justices of various states,walked out after advocate Anupam Gupta delivered a speech on the lawyer-judge nexus which,he said,was evolved for the purpose of attracting litigants and thereby chunks of money.

Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) scam: Eyebrows were raised when,in the multi-crore PPSC recruitment scam,three judges of the high court were alleged to be taking favours from Ravi Sidhu,former PPSC chairman. After an inquiry,the Vigilance Department found Rs 8 crore in Sidhus bank account. The former Chief Justice,A B Saharya,had conducted an in-house inquiry on the instructions of Chief Justice of India B N Kirpal to find out whether any judge was involved in the scam. Following the inquiry,work was withdrawn from the three judges on June 28,2002,but restored months later. While one of the judges was exonerated,another was let off with a warning. The third judge was asked to go on leave,after which he retired.

The mass leave drama: On April 19,2004,25 sitting judges of the high court went on mass leave protesting against Chief Justice B K Roys move to seek an explanation from two judges,Justice Vinay Mittal and Varinder Singh,who had allegedly applied for membership to a private golf course,Forest Hill Resort Club. The club was involved in litigation and was later demolished on the orders of the high court.

The club was illegally constructed in violation of forest and environment laws,but had given honorary memberships to IAS officers and the two judges,in what was viewed as an attempt to legitimise the establishment.

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The insane judgement: Another embarrassment was an unusual order passed by Justice Uma Nath Singh in which he declared advocate Tahar Singh insane. His judgement came after Tahars wife filed a harassment complaint against him. But the judges diagnosis caused a furore in the legal fraternity and the High Court Bar took a stand to boycott the Court of Justice Uma Nath Singh till the Chief Justice (CJ) withdrew all work from him. However,the case was decided on November 14,2008 after a Division Bench disposed of the matter after Tahar Singh and his wife were divorced.

CJs judicial impropriety allegations: In yet another first,former Chief Justice V K Jain wrote to the Chief Justice of India recommending the transfer of senior high court judge Justice Mehtab Singh Gill on the ground of judicial impropriety Jain questioned the fact that Gill opted to become administrative judge of Ludhiana when he was aware that a property case involving his son,advocate Amandeep Singh Gill,was pending there. Jain also questioned the practice of allowing judges to choose to become administrative judge of districts,stating that the decision should be in the hands of the Chief Justice.

Cash-for judge case: The incident took place in August 2008 when a bag containing Rs 15 lakh belonging to Delhi hotelier Ravinder Singh was wrongly delivered at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur by the peon of former Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal. Later it was claimed that the packet was meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav. The case was eventually handed to the CBI,which on Friday submitted a report in the case. A three-judge committee was also constituted by the Chief Justice of India to look into the allegations. The committee has already submitted its final report to CJI K G Balakrishnan,who will take a decision on the issue shortly.