The apex court said it would tomorrow pronounce its order whether such a plea was maintenable or not. The plea claims that allegations of bribery were levelled for securing settlement of cases relating to medical colleges in which a retired Orissa High Court judge, Ishrat Masroor Quddusi, is an accused.
A three-judge bench comprising Justices R K Agrawal, Arun Mishra and A M Khanwilkar reserved the order after a 90-minute hearing in which advocate Kamini Jaiswal and her lawyers including senior advocate Shanti Bhushan and counsel Prashant Bhushan were questioned for filing two identical petitions with similarly-worded averments and annexures.
'Forum shopping' is a practice adopted by litigants to get their cases heard by a particular court for a favorable judgement.
They were reminded by the bench that they were stressing that the matter should be heard by a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar in court number 2.
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The bench said that making serious allegations against the CJI and saying that he should not pass orders, either on administrative or on judicial sides, would amount to contempt.
"It has been held in series of judgements that this kind of allegations are per se contempt. Demanding that the matter be listed before a particular bench and hearing during the course of day, is itself forum shopping," Justice Mishra said.
At the outset, the bench asked whether filing of two identical worded petitions by members of the same organisation 'Campaign for Judicial Accountability' would not amount to impropriety or demanding listing of the pleas before a particular bench would not tantamount to 'forum shopping'.
Advocate Kamini Jaiswal, who is a member of the organisation, had also filed a separate petition after the petition of the NGO got listed for hearing before the bench other than that of the bench headed by Justice Chelameswar
The CJI's bench had then said the Chief Justice was "the master of roster" and had the prerogative to allocate matters before any bench.
The high-voltage hearing in a jam-packed courtroom saw Attorney General K K Venugopal lambasting the activist advocates saying their petition had already cost the reputation of the institution and led to grudges among sections of advocates.
Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, said the petition was "clear, conscious and deliberate attempt to malign the reputation of institution and judges".
The bench said the constitution bench in 1991 held that there cannot be any probe and no FIR can be lodged against sitting judges without the competent authority's approval.
Shanti Bhushan, appearing for Jaiswal, said the constitution bench order of November 10 was illegal on two counts, firstly under Article 144 of Constitution, all civil and judicial authorities including CJI Dipak Misra is bound by the order passed by Justice J Chelameswar.
Shanti Bhushan submitted that the inherent powers under Article 142 to do complete justice was only available to the apex court and not even to High Courts. And considering the seriousness of the matter, Justice Chelameswar was right in setting up the five-judge constitution bench, he said.
The bench said it will answer all the questions on whether CJI can allocate matters, which bench will hear the petitions, whether a judge should recuse or not and whether the court should hear the present petition or not.
He said the case pertained to a medical college matter which was heard by a three-judge bench headed by CJI and (referring to Justice A M Khanwilkar) one of the member of that bench is sitting in this bench.
The senior advocate further said that FIR says that money was collected in the name of judges to get a favourable order in the matter which was heard by a bench of CJI.
The judge further questioned senior advocate Shanti Bhushan to specify what was the necessity to file the second petition when the first one was already listed before the bench of Justice A K Sikri.
The bench said although that issue was now over as to who can a constitute a bench or a constitution bench and the only questions are properiety, merit and whether the plea was maintainable or not.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan then mellowed down his argument and said there were no direct allegations against CJI in the FIR and was only a reference to the matter heard by CJI.