PF scam: Accused judges oppose shifting of case to Delhi in Supreme Court

CBI said that the case “first of its kind” and has “shaken the foundation of judiciary” and there was all likelihood of the accused interfering in the administration of justice if it was not shifted out of the state.

“The paramount consideration is to meet the ends of justice and justice should not only be done but it should seem to be done,” Attorney General G E Vahanvati submitted before a special three-judge Bench headed by Justice D K Jain which reserved the verdict on CBI’s plea seeking transfer of the case to Delhi.

“Had they been sitting judges there could have been the chance of influencing the progress of the case and even the evidence is mostly documentary evidence,” the Bench,also comprising Justices V S Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi said,while discharging the notice against the Ghaziabad District Judge Vishnu Chandra Gupta,who was accused of interfering with the administration of justice in the case.

“We are satisfied with the explanation of the District Judge. We discharge the notice issued to him,” the Bench said.

Vahanvati said the strongest ground for the agency was that the Special Judge to hold the trial of the case in Ghaziabad court is likely to have worked with or was under the superivision of judicial officers chargesheeted in the case.

“The judge holding the case may be knowing them,” he said adding that “it is the first case of its kind when judicial officers are directly involved”.

The chargesheet,filed by CBI,has named six retired district judges,out of whom three — Ravindra Kumar Mishra,Ajay Kumar Singh and Radhey Shyam Chaubey –were elevated to the Allahabad High Court.

The other three judges were Ram Prasad Mishra,R P Yadav and Arun Kumar.

There are 70 accused in the case and the scam involves fraudulent withdrawal of money from the PF accounts of class III and IV employees of Ghaziabad District court in which names of judges,including one from the apex court,surfaced.

The Attorney General said in the last few years this is the case which has “shaken the confidence of people in the judiciary” and there was a need for taking care and caution for holding its trial and opposed the grounds including the high cost of lawyers fee and high travelling expense to national capital by the accused former judges.

Vahanvati got support from senior advocate Prashant Bhushan,who was appearing for one of the petitioners seeking shifting of the case outside Ghaziabad.

Bhushan said the apprehension of the Attorney General was justified as it was on the plea of the UP police which had expressed difficulty in probing the scam before apex court,that the investigation of the case was handed over to CBI.

However,the lawyers appearing for the judges,said there could not be any dispute that paramount consideration should be free and fair trial but apprehension must be reasonable.

They submitted how can it be said that trial cannot be fair in Ghaziabad Court.

At this point the Bench said “there can be some element and we can’t leave like this. You cannot rule out the possibility”.

“Can you not imagine that there could be influence as they were District judges and High Court judges before they retired,” the bench said adding that the fact was as High Court judges they must have been adminitrative or inspecting judges for the Ghaziabad court.

They raised some technical grounds for opposing the CBI plea which failed to impress the bench which,at one point,wanted to know from them “whether the case deserves to be transferred or not”.

Their lawyers said since all of them have retired it was difficult to comprehend that that they will influence the witnesses including the 13 who are sitting judges in the subordinate judiciary.

Rama Jain,who was the special CBI judge,is the complainant and witness in the case.

On the ground that the accused judges are settled in different part of UP and they would have difficulty in travelling to Delhi,the Bench said in any case they would have to come to Ghaziabad which is only 20 kms from Karkardooma court in east Delhi.

Advoate Vishwajit Singh,appearing for the Class III and IV employee of Ghaziabad court who are accused in the case,said they are poor people and would find difficulty in travelling and meeting the expense of the lawyers in Delhi.

The Bench had issued notices to the 70 accused on the plea by CBI for shifting the trial in the case outside Uttar Pradesh,preferrably to Delhi.

CBI had filed a status report on July 28 in a sealed cover and said there was “no evidence” against 17 judges and there was lack of sufficient evidence to prosecute the remaining 24 judicial officers in the case.

In the report,CBI is believed to have said that an apex court judge Tarun Chatterjee,who has since retired,is among the 24 judicial officers against whom there is “no prosecutable” evidence.

CBI had submitted that trial in the case should be shifted out as the there are 25 class III and IV employees of Ghaziabad District Court who are crucial witnesses and are likely to be influenced.

The apex court had on July 28 stayed the proceedings in the PF scam before a special CBI court after the agency had submitted that some “extremely disturbing” incidents warranted shifting of the trial in the case outside the state.

Vahanvati had said immediate shifting of the trial outside Uttar Pradesh was necessary as there have been “extremely disturbing incidents in the Ghaziabad Court”.

He had alleged that the District Judge,under whose jurisdiction the CBI judge works,has been orally asking the state police to involve themselves in the case which has been handed over to CBI.

The AG had further said the proceedings of the case have to be kept away from the court in Uttar Pradesh as six of the judicial officers whose name have cropped up in the scam have been elevated as judges of High Courts.

Vahanvati had said the report about the 24 judges,against whom there is no sufficient prosecutable evidence,was sent to Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia and the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court for taking administrative action for their alleged misconduct.

He had said CBI till March examined 220 witnesses,including judicial officers,and the agency was in the process of sifting through 30,000 specimen signatures of the accused to establish the case and had sought time to complete the probe.

The prime accused in the multi-crore scam Ashutosh Asthana,43,died under mysterious circumstances on October 17,2009,at Dasna district jail in Ghaziabad where he was lodged in connection with the case.

The accused,who was a treasury officer at the Ghaziabad court,was arrested in April 2008 for allegedly siphoning off the provident funds of class III and IV employees.

During investigation and interrogation of Asthana,names of judges of various courts had cropped up as alleged beneficiaries of the scam.

CBI is investigating the case under the apex court’s direction.