Justice Sen files reply to Rajya Sabha panel

“Justice Sen’s statement of defence to the charges was filed today,” said Bhattacharjee.

A committee comprising Justice B Sudershan Reddy of the Supreme Court,Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and jurist Fali S Nariman,had served a notice to Sen in the first week of March,urging him to file his response to the charges brought against him.

CASE HISTORY
An advocate of Calcutta High Court,Sen was appointed as a receiver by the High Court in April 1984 in a civil suit between SAIL and Shipping Corporation of India Limited.

In 1993,the High Court directed Sen to deposit the money collected from the sale of certain goods,following the civil suit,in a separate bank account. Ten years later on December 3,2003,Sen was elevated as a judge of the Calcutta High Court,but the money was still kept in an account on his name. SAIL moved court in 2003 to get the money back.

Claiming that the “receiver being a practising advocate had betrayed the trust and confidence reposed in him by the court”,Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta on April 10,2006,directed Sen to pay the amount with interest.

After depositing Rs 57,57,204,Sen filed an application before the same Bench in December 2006 seeking a deletion of the observations made against him in the April 10 order. The application was disposed of by Justice Sengupta with a liberty given to Sen to move to a Division Bench on July 31,2007.

Meanwhile,the order passed by Justice Sengupta was published in various newspapers,thereby inviting Chief Justice Balakrishnan’s attention who,on July 1,2007,sought a report on the case from former chief justice of Calcutta High Court S S Nijjar.

Sen was called by Chief Justice Balakrishnan on July 12,2007 to explain his conduct.

Meanwhile,on the appeal filed by Sen challenging the order of Justice Sengupta,a Division Bench comprising Justices Pranab Kumar Chatterjee and Kalidas Mukherjee directed on September 25,2007,that Justice Sengupta’s observations against Sen be deleted. Sen later apprised Chief Justice Balakrishnan of the Division Bench’s order.

Chief Justice Balakrishnan,however,constituted a three-member committee comprising Justices A P Shah,A K Patnaik and R M Lodha in December 2007,to inquire into the case against Sen. Placing its report in February 2008,the committee observed: “There has been misappropriation of money (at least temporary) of the sale proceeds.”

On the basis of the findings of the inquiry committee Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan requested Prime Minister to adopt a procedure to remove Justice Sen. Following this,58 members of the Rajya Sabha moved a motion in February 2009 to impeach Sen.

The move led to the formation of the three-member committee comprising Justice Reddy,Chief Justice Mudgal and jurist Nariman,to probe the allegations.