SINHA CITES PAST SC RULINGS IN DAIRY ROW: CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, accused of meeting persons linked to sensitive cases like the 2G and coal scams at his official residence, has relied on past court rulings for a counter-attack on lawyer Prashant Bhushan ahead of a crucial Supreme Court hearing in the case on Monday. A bench headed by Justice H.L. Dattu had last week described as “serious” the allegations levelled by Bhushan based on the alleged entry register of Sinha’s residence. After the matter was brought to the court’s attention by Bhushan, the judges asked Sinha to file an affidavit explaining “things in black and white”. In his affidavit, Sinha has demanded the prosecution of the NGO Common Cause and Bhushan for perjury for allegedly filing false documents in the court. Significantly, Sinha also slammed the Supreme Court registry for accepting the “sworn” affidavit by Bhushan, which he said was “in violation of the established Supreme Court rules” as it did not reveal the source of the “personal information” detailed in it. Sinha’s affidavit, to be argued by former additional solicitor general Vikas Singh, cited a slew of Supreme Court and high court judgments which state such affidavits are to be outrightly rejected even at the registry stage. Other verdicts that call for “strict action” against those committing perjury have also been referred to in Sinha’s affidavit. “In a 2011 ruling, the Supreme Court had dealt with the issue in detail and deprecated the practice followed by registry of the court of placing such affidavits without disclosing the source of the information stated in the affidavit,” Sinha said in his affidavit. During the last hearing, Justice Dattu had assured Sinha’s lawyer that the bench would ask Bhushan to reveal his source if he does not do so himself. “Registry must scrutinise all affidavits, petitions and applications and reject or note as defective all those which are not in conformity with Supreme Court rules,” the 2011 ruling cited by Sinha stated. Sinha challenged Bhushan’s claim that he received the entry register from a “reliable whistleblower”, saying the “concept of whistleblower would only arise if one is dealing with crimes where the whistleblower needs protection against the persons against whom some disclosure is sought to be made”. Singh said he could point out “several discrepancies” in the entry register submitted to court and it would be easy to prove that the document was tampered with to malign the CBI director’s reputation. Sinha also urged that a case of perjury should not be taken lightly as it “pollutes the stream of justice and encourages people to file more such affidavits”. According to sources, Sinha’s affidavit mentioned that the entry register had recorded visitors during April 8-13 on pages 57 to 60 even though he was not at his residence during this period and was, instead, in Europe with his wife, while his son was in Netherlands and daughter in Chhattisgarh. (COURTESY-MAIL TODAY)
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:04:10 +0000
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