Journalism of Courage
The government on Wednesday objected to former Gujarat home minister Amit Shahs attacks on the neutrality of the lead judge in the Supreme Court bench which transferred the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case to the CBI.
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising went to the extent of describing the questions raised about the integrity of the judge Justice Tarun Chatterjee,now retired as nothing short of contempt of court.
The government argued that Shah has so far not bothered to substantiate his claim with any evidence against the judge. The alleged interest of the judge whether personal or otherwise is not only fanciful but the averments to that effect are nothing short of contempt of this court, Jaising said before a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai.
The ASG was referring to the contentions of Shah,who alleged that the CBI was used by the Centre and in this conspiracy the possible bias of the judge played a critical role for getting the case transferred to the agency.
Senior advocate Ram Jethmalani had raised questions on the neutrality of the SC Bench Justice Alam was the puisne judge on the Bench at the time which passed the order on January 12,2010 transferring the case from the Gujarat police to the CBI.
Jethmalani had repeatedly contended that the lead judge was under the scrutiny of the CBI in the Ghaziabad Provident Fund scam and should have,at the first instance,recused himself.
