Supreme Court of India frowns on attempt to pick judge :Calls Move, Coming From A Sr Advocate, Unfortunate

It was done earlier by senior advocates Ram Jethmalani and Shanti Bhushan to get a case out of the docket of a Bench, but on Tuesday senior advocate A M Singhvi drew flak from the Supreme Court for seeking the inclusion of a particular judge on a Bench.

Recounting that Justice Aftab Alam had been part of the Bench which passed interim orders staying work at numerous projects by the Mayawati government for Dalit leaders including installation of their statues at Lucknow, Singhvi requested a Bench comprising Justices H S Bedi and T S Thakur for putting the case for hearing before a Bench that also had Justice Alam.

The Bench headed by Justice Bedi took strong exception to the request and said: “It is not for us to decide the composition of a Bench. And it is not for you to request for a particular composition of a Bench. To say the least, it is a very uncharitable request. It is very unkind of you to have made such a request.” Seizing the opportunity, UP government’s counsel — senior advocates S C Mishra and R N Trivedi — joined the Bench in expressing their deep distress at such an “intimidatory request” being made by a senior person. “The Bench should not succumb to such intimidatory tactics,” they suggested.

Quick to sense the Bench’s annoyance, Singhvi sought to smartly tweak his request and said: “I am sorry. I never made a request for change of Bench. Given the fact that Justice Alam had been part of the Bench that passed all the interim orders, my suggestion was to include him so as to make it a threejudge Bench. I can never suggest that the matter be not heard by this Bench.”

But, the arrow had already left the quiver and the Bench fired a riposte at him: “Can we pass an order directing inclusion of Justice Alam in the Bench? You are here in the Supreme Court for a long time and know the procedure how and where matters are fixed for hearing.

This request should never have been made in the first place. It is very, very unfortunate.”

On February 9 this year, former law minister and senior counsel Shanti Bhushan had virtually forced Justice Arijit Pasayat to recuse himself from hearing a case concerning former PM H D Deve Gowda saying he apprehended some bias as during an earlier hearing the judge had severely criticised Gowda for writing letters to judges in the Bangalore-Mysore expressway case.

On January 23, Ram Jethmalani, another ex-law minister and senior advocate, while appearing for the Ansals who wanted bail in the Uphaar fire case, had got Justice B N Agrawal to recuse himself from hearing the bail petition of Gopal Ansal and Sushil Ansal.
Source:- The Times of India 2 December 2009 Page No.17 Delhi

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