Former Odisha High Court judge IM Quddusi, who is an accused in the the Lucknow medical college scam, on Wednesday petitioned a Central Bureau of Investigation court to investigate the leak of transcripts of phone calls between him and the other accused in the case, News 18 reported. Quddusi urged the court to find out if the investigating agency had leaked the records.
The scam involves a medical college run by Prasad Education Trust. The Medical Council of India had denied the trust permission to operate the college, but a middleman allegedly assured the trust that the judiciary would allow it to run the institute. The trust then allegedly paid the middleman to facilitate this.
The court has asked the CBI to reply by January 22 about how the transcripts of phone conversations involving Qudussi, middleman Vishwanath Agarwal and BP Yadav of the Prasad Education Trust, found their way into the hands of NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms.
The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms had made the transcripts public on Monday. Senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is the NGO’s convener, on Monday filed a complaint against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra for “various allegations of misconduct” in his handling of this case.
The CBI’s First Information Report showed that “entire conspiracy and planning was to bribe and influence apex court judges who are dealing”, Bhushan said. The senior lawyer added that though there was no conclusive evidence of Misra’s involvement in the conspiracy, a thorough investigation was necessary.
A bench headed by Justice Chelameswar in November 2017 admitted a petition seeking an inquiry into the case. Justice Misra then hurriedly put together a five-judge bench to reverse this order and asserted the chief justice’s right to be the sole master of the roster. During the proceedings, some lawyers in the court openly questioned the judgment passed by Justice Chelameswar. Another bench of the court, which heard the petitions later, went on to fine the petitioners Rs 25 lakh for making baseless charges in the petition.
The petitioners did not want Justice Misra to hear the case as the matter belonged to Odisha, where he was once a judge and that he had adjudicated on cases involving the medical colleges under scanner. The court called the petition contemptuous, but stopped short of initiating contempt proceedings against the petitioners.
The handling of this case was one of the points of difference between the chief justice and the four other senior judges, who spoke out against him on January 12.
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