After recently revealing a case of bench hunting in an ED case pending against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, another attempt at bench hunting & manipulation in a politically sensitive case is coming to light.
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This matter relates to Tamil Nadu DMK government’s current Minister of Electricity- V Senthil Balaji, who is facing a Prevention of Money Laundering Case filed by ED.
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Madras High Court on 1 Sept 2022 passed an order in which it stayed the ED’s investigation for the time being.
Few of the original complainants filed an appeal before the Sup Court saying a fresh investigation would delay the matter.
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The cases are currently being heard by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Amanullah.
Now, enter Justice Ramasubramanian.
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As per Supreme Court Rules, in case somebody files a fresh petition relating to the same or a similar matter already pending in the court, the fresh petition should be tagged and heard together with d previously pending matters.
Else, two benches would be hearing the same case.
Coming back to Balaji’s case- though Justice Murari’s bench is seized of the matter, the ED on 09 Jan 2023 filed a fresh petition in the same matter asking that it be allowed to investigate Balaji.
Ideally, d case should’ve been put up before Murari bcuz it’s d same matter.
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However, just like in Jagan Reddy’s case, the Supreme Court Registry somehow, for reasons unexplained, listed the fresh ED case before Justice Ramasubramanian, raising questions of impropriety and selectivity.
The case could not have been listed before him at all.
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On Friday, Sr Advocate Kapil Sibal pointed out at Justice Murari’s court that the Registry had listed this new petition before Justice Ramasubramanian’s court, raising questions of impropriety. How can two courts hear the same petition, especially in a sensitive political matter?
Agreeing to the seriousness, Jus Murari asked Sibal to mention the matter before Chief Justice of India on Monday.
Now the Chief will have to decide whether Justice Murari will continue to hear all cases, including the fresh ED case, or matters get transferred to Justice R.
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I had pointed out in my tweet thread on AP CM Reddy’s case, how his politically sensitive case was suddenly deleted from Justice Murari’s court and listed before Justice R.
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Now this case involving DMK party, an opponent to BJP’s Tamil Nadu ally AIADMK is also somehow listed before Justice Ramasubramanian.
Questions that arise are- How can Registry list a similar matter before another judge? And why would it do this? And to whose benefit?
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Cases wherein the Registry deleted and/or selectively listed matters before selected judges are many. This is worth doing a research on.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be looking at a few more cases where cases are deleted and listed without any explanation. /12
{The End}
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A case of 'Bench Hunting' coming from the Supreme Court of India. A politically sensitive matter was removed from a particular judge and suddenly listed before another judge, whose law clerk has links to the politician in question.
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Bharathi Cement Corporation Private Ltd — in which Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s family holds 49% stake, and his wife, Y S Bharathi Reddy, is a Director — is facing an Enforcement Directorate case since 2016.
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ED launched d investigation on the basis of a chargesheet filed by CBI accusing Jagan, son of then Andhra Pradesh CM YS Rajasekhar Reddy, of entering into a criminal conspiracy with others to get a mining lease allotted to Bharathi Cement Corp of which his wife was a part.
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Gowri's first known association with BJP started in 2010, as Kerala Mahila Morcha state in-charge. When Modi's govt came to power in 2014, she was appt a senior central govt counsel at Madras HC in 2015.
In 2017, a cabinet committee headed by Modi also appointed her as... 2/
...an independent director at Kamarajar Port Ltd in Chennai.
In 2020, Modi's govt appointed Gowri as the Assistant Solicitor General of India at Madras HC's Madurai Bench.
Pic: Gowri tying Rakhi to Modi on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. 3/
How the Supreme Court of India Allowed Centre & RBI to Withhold Crucial Docs Related to Demonetisation — A Thread 🧵
The Centre and RBI withheld crucial information from the Supreme Court of India during the demonetisation hearing. /1
At least 6 crucial objections raised by RBI, 2.5 hrs before the Nov 8 announcement by Modi were never mentioned during the hearing. All of these objections discredited the noteban decision. Today’s IE report by @ieuditmisra reveals them.
But what did the Supreme Court do?
There were at least 4 occasions when Sr. Adv P Chidambaram raised this issue of withholding crucial documents before the 5 Judge constitutional bench headed by Justice Abdul Nazeer.
The 4 documents in question were-
1. November 7 letter from the Union Government to the RBI.
Today, I write in The Hindu's editorial. A thread🧵
India is Losing Its Cherished Right To Know
The most vital mandate of the Central Information Commission, the apex body under India’s transparency regime, is to decide whether certain information sought by a citizen ought to be disclosed or not. Its primary duty is to decide the disclosure or the non-disclosure of info.
But the Central Information Commission has seemingly relinquished this primary duty in cases of larger public importance.
The CIC was a functioning institution until four years ago. From boldly pronouncing that political parties were under the RTI Act’s ambit, and hence... 3/
Even though the Supreme Court’s constitution bench was hearing a case seeking a fair system for appointment of independent election commissioners, and given there was one vacancy at Election Commission for which a stay was sought, the govt went ahead & appointed its babu.
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Now d Supreme Court has asked the govt to show the file relating to Arun Goel’s appointment as EC.
@pbhushan1 appearing for the petitioner sought a stay on Thursday. Friday, the govt gave voluntary retirement to Goel. Saturday warrant of appt was issued.
The bench raised this.
The Attorney General was adamant on not revealing the file.
“If there is no hanky-panky, show it”, Justice Joseph said.
But what is sad is the manner in which the Court was rather *requesting* the govt to show the file instead of ordering and asserting its order, in writing.