SC dismisses NGO plea vs imposition of Rs 25 lakh cost

The Supreme Court has dismissed a plea to review its judgement imposing a whopping Rs 25 lakh cost on NGO 'Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms' and rejected a petition for a SIT probe into a CBI FIR in the medical college's scam.

A bench of Justices Arun Misra, A M Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan junked the plea to reconsider the judgement delivered on December 1, 2017.

“We have carefully gone through the review petition and the connected papers. We find no merit in the review petition and the same is accordingly dismissed,” the bench said in its order.

The review petition is considered in the chamber of judges according to Supreme Court Rules.

Error apparent

In its petition, the NGO, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, contended there was an error apparent on the face of records in the December 1, 2017 judgement as a bona fide plea for investigation was termed as contemptuous and scandalous. It also claimed the costs were imposed in violation of principles of natural justice and ‘rule of law’.

The main petition was heard last year after a similar plea by advocate Kamini Jaiswal was dismissed for making contemptuous allegations against the Chief Justice of India.

In its judgement, the top court had said the CBI was investigating the matter and that is good enough and no judge of the apex court has been named in the FIR. Former Orissa HC judge I M Quddusi, among others, was arrested in the medical college's bribery case.