No justice for a judge in this country: Justice Manjunath

Refuting several charges made against him over the years, senior judge of the Karnataka High Court, Justice K L Manjunath, on Monday accused some of the judges of the High Court, their kin and a Supreme Court judge of indulging in ‘witch-hunt’ against him.

Justice Manjunath, who retired on Monday after serving for more than 14 years, broke his silence on constant accusations of corruption against him. An emotional Manjunath surprised many by saying that some of the judges were behind the attempt to tarnish his reputation in the last five years. He almost broke down saying, “There is no place for integrity and honesty and no justice for a judge in this country.”

Stating that he restrained himself from approaching the media due to judicial discipline, he said: “If I do not reveal the truth today, it will be buried along with me.” He cited an incident of September 2013 when he was considered for elevation and mentioned about a complaint by Dr Furquan of New Delhi against him that he had amassed wealth. The accusations were published in a Kerala journal.

“It was the first and last issue of the journal. The involvement of a judge and his son in publishing and circulating it across the country is now an open secret. The son of the judge played an active role in circulating more than 50,000 copies of the journal free of cost.” He said a probe into it was ordered by the then Chief Justice of India (CJI), without his knowledge, and this revealed that the allegations against him were false. His name was cleared as judge for the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

“But the file was returned to the CJI, because, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court addressed a letter to the CJI making certain allegations against me. Based on it, some advocates from Tamil Nadu filed a PIL against me before the apex court with active initiation of the son of a judge who was instructing the arguing counsel in the Supreme Court. This is also an open secret. In what way these counsels are concerned with a Karnataka judge? What is the nexus between a judge’s son and these advocates has to be inferred,” Justice Manjunath stated.

Thanking some of the Supreme Court judges who stood by him during the crisis, Justice Manjunath said despite all this, his elevation was kept pending for more than 10 months, without reason.

Mentioning some of the points of the letter by the said Supreme Court Judge to the CJI, he said he was branded a communalist, incapable of deciding either the question of law or constitutional issues and supporting the advocates in the March 2, 2012 clash between the police, media and advocates on the court premises. Denying the charges, he mentioned about the advocates boycotting courts in 2013 in his support and said the allegations of siding his community arose because of the support he got from the legal fraternity on that day.

On the allegations of incapability in handling constitutional issues, he said many of his judgements had been upheld by the apex court. On the allegations of supporting advocates on March 2, 2012, he said he went to the civil court complex on that particular day to bring the situation under control. “Can that be a ground to delay my elevation,” he questioned.