Bar Council of India chairman deprecates allegations raised against Justice Chandrachud

Indian Bar cannot tolerate any such nonsense act of anybody. The timing of complaint clearly exposes the malicious purpose behind it, said the BCI Chairman

The Bar Council of India has strongly deprecated "malicious attempt" being made to raise "scurrilous allegations" against the senior most Supreme Court judge Justice D Y Chandrachud on the eve of his recommendation to be the Chief Justice of India.

In a statement, BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra said the regulatory body has thoroughly examined the contents of a 165-page long letter by one R K Pathan and finds that it is nothing but a scurrilous and malicious attempt to interfere with the functioning of judiciary and the administration of justice.

"Pathan claiming to be the President of some so called “Supreme Court and High Court Litigant Association” is stated to have lodged a complaint...Surprisingly no details of Pathan is furnished in the complaint. This act of Pathan is nothing, but, a deliberate attempt to malign our Indian Judiciary in the eyes of the world," he said.

Mishra informed that the State Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa and the Bar Council of India would investigate into such nefarious conducts of these handful of advocates of Mumbai and appropriate action would be taken, so that in future no one could dare to commit such mischief.

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"Indian Bar cannot tolerate any such nonsense act of anybody. The timing of complaint clearly exposes the malicious purpose behind it," he claimed.

Notably, the Centre has started the process for appointment of new CJI as incumbent Justice U U Lalit is to demit office on November 8 on superannuation by asking him to name his successor as per the Memorandum of Procedure.

Mishra said as per information, Pathan (Rashid Khan Pathan) was in April, 2020, in a Suo-Moto Contempt Petition, was found guilty by the Supreme Court for filing false, and baseless complaints against a judge of Supreme court (now retired). The Court had then sentenced Pathan and two others to three months simple imprisonment, he pointed out.

The allegations by Pathan cited two instances of Justice Chandrachud dealing with matters one in which his son had appeared as advocate before the Bombay High Court and another related to Covid-19 vaccination.