
Shekhar Gupta: By a junior lawyer in your court or a lawyer’s driver...
J S Verma: By anyone who is..
Shekhar Gupta: Sir 11- 12 years down the line you have a feeling that you have failed
J S Verma: Well pardon me for putting it slightly differently. Its not that we have failed I think the mandate has not been able to be implemented by the people who are supposed to. I remember having told then CBI Vijay rama rao..i said ‘look If you cant work without influence even now then you would never be able to do it.
Shekhar Gupta: Even after your judgment? Because he had the protection of the SC
J S Verma: Yes..yes.. he got 6 months extension not from the government, it was from us in the SC and what did they do…they filed half baked charge sheet to get rid of the monitoring bias because then the ordinary criminal jurisdiction would take over and as some people told me they were only waiting for me to retire.
Shekhar Gupta: You represented an institution which has been activist and strong even after that
J S Verma: Of course. But then the question is that part of the monitoring was over
Shekhar Gupta: And protections that could be institutionally provided were provided
J S Verma: Yes they are provided and they are being enforced. My successors and those who continued to be in the SC they are insisting on that very thing and the judicial process of continuing mandamus developed in the havalah case which was being followed
... contd.