Probe into phone conversion: SC asks former Andhra HC Judge to provide transcript of audio

'How can private conversation be made a subject of inquiry? What is the crime in having a private conversation, even if it is about conduct of an SC judge?,' Bhushan said

The Supreme Court on Monday asked former judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice V Eswaraiah to provide transcript of secretly recorded conversation between him and a suspended district munsif magistrate, about a sitting top court's judge and then chief justice.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the ex-judge asked a bench presided over by Justice Ashok Bhushan to stay on the order of August 13 by the high court which directed an inquiry into conversation.

"How can a private conversation be made a subject of inquiry? What is the crime in having a private conversation, even if it is about the conduct of a SC judge? Without even hearing me, the HC orders an inquiry? How can that be done," the counsel submitted.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for some intervenors, contended it was a motivated attack on the sitting judge.

The bench, also comprising Justices R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah, asked advocate Bhushan if he admitted the conversation. To this, the counsel said the conversation did take place but the transcript was a bit incorrect.

On this, the bench asked him to file an affidavit about the conversation.

In a special leave petition, the 69-year-old retired judge and chairman of Andhra Pradesh State Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission contended that the HC "erred" in ordering the inquiry into the secretly recorded conversation in an unverified pen drive to conclude a plot was hatched against judges.

The HC had said the contents of the conversation disclosed a “serious conspiracy” against the Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh, and a senior sitting judge of the Supreme Court to "destabilise the judiciary".

"Alleging in a private conversation that there is corruption in the highest judiciary or alleging that a certain judge may be involved in act of corruption, does not amount to a plot or a conspiracy to malign the reputation of the highest judiciary," the petitioner claimed.

He claimed he had openly exposed various improper acts of the sitting judge of the Supreme Court in various press conferences in the past, which he considered against judicial propriety and a misuse of power, such as his close proximity to the former chief minister N Chandra Babu Naidu.

Therefore, the conversation even if taken at face value, cannot be construed as a conspiracy, his plea said.

Notably, the Andhra Pradesh government had earlier ordered an FIR against prominent people, including two daughters of the SC judge, in Amravati land transfer scam, which was earlier stayed by the high court.