Judge puts ex-CJI in dock

Reghupathis letter was sent to Justice Balakrishnan

In a statement, Justice Gokhale said: “With respect to the first statement of the former CJI that he did not receive any letter from Justice Reghupathi, I may point out that, I had forwarded to the former CJI a copy of Justice Reghupathi’s letter dated 2.7.2009 by my letter dated 5.7.2007.’’

Justice Balakrishnan, who is now chairman of the Human Rights Commission, had claimed that there was no mention of any Union minister in the report sent by Justice Gokhale, the then High Court chief justice, on the Justice S Reghupathi episode.

“I regret to say that the allegations are absolutely incorrect,” Balakrishan said last week referring to news reports that he had suppressed a letter purportedly written by Justice Reghupathi to him when he was the chief justice of India.

Justice Balakrishnan in his statement had said: “It appears that Justice Reghupathi made a statement that he reported the matter to the chief justice and he certainly meant the chief justice of the Madras High Court and not the chief justice of India.’’ 

“These facts may be verified.  The letter which was written by the then chief justice of the Madras High Court Justice Gokhale to the then chief justice of India, wherein there was no mention of the name of any Union Minister,  may be available in the office of the present chief justice of India,’’ Justice Balakrishnan added.

However, Justice Gokhale said the former CJI had acknowledged his letter saying “the actual state of affairs concerning the alleged misconduct of a Union minister of the Government of India reported in the media.’’

Justice Gokhale said: “With respect to this statement I may point out that Justice Reghupathi’s letter was already with him and in the second paragraph thereof Justice Reghupathi had specifically mentioned the name of Raja. “I had no personal knowledge about the incident and observations in my reply wherein are in conformity with the contents of Justice Reghupathi’s,” Justice Gokhale said.

Quoting the letter he had sent to the CJI, Justice Gokhale said Chandramohan, Chairman of Bar Council of Tamil Nadu  tried to influence Justice Reghupathi to grant anticipatory bail to a doctor and his family, who are close to Raja.

Meanwhile, Justice K G Balakrishnan on Tuesday reiterated that Justice Reghupathi  had not written to him naming  Raja. “It was a letter written by Justice Reghupathi to the then Madras High Court chief justice (Gokhale). How can I reveal the contents of that letter,” he said.

“You must understand. I had said that Justice Reghupathi has not written to me as chief justice of India. He has not written any letter to me. He avoided questions on whether Justice Gokhale’s report contained Raja’s name and why he did not acknowledge the same. Justice Balakrishnan said there was no case where any minister had contacted any judge.