‘Sting’ on judge: Scandalous, says Bombay HC, refers matter to larger bench

Bombay High Court

In the “sting operation” case against a judge of the Bombay High Court, a division bench of the court has termed the actions of the perpetrators as “scandalous” while referring the matter to a larger bench of three to five judges. A division bench of justices AS Oka and Anuja Prabhudesai observed that the “issue affects the independence of the judiciary”.

A petition was filed by the Bombay Bar Association, seeking contempt action to be initiated against those who recorded and uploaded a video on YouTube to level allegations of corruption against a Bombay High Court judge. Lawyer Nilesh Ojha who has also levelled allegations against the judge in the video told the court that the petitioners had made false and baseless statements and that action should be initiated against the petitioner and not the respondents.

The court observed that the videos are scandalous in nature and that this is a fit case to issue contempt action against the respondents. However, justice Oka refused to pass an injunction on whether the common man/advocates can prosecute judges and said, “The issue of this nature where defamatory allegations have been made against the sitting judge and in light of the seriousness of the case, it should be referred to a larger bench and directions will be sought from the Chief Justice as to which bench can hear the case.”