CBI to probe warrant for Kalam

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered a central Bureau of investigation (CBI) probe into allegations of bribery against an Ahmedabad magistrate and issuance of bailable warrants against the President, the Chief Justice of India, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court and a former president of its bar association and asked the agency to submit its report by February 6.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice VN Khare, Justice SB Sinha and Justice SH Kapadia, which had yesterday directed the Gujarat High Court registrar-general to immediately seize and send the relevant records of the metropolitan magistrate's court to it, ordered this after perusing the files and the English translation.

The documents were submitted by senior counsel Harish Salve on behalf of private TV journalist Vijay Shekhar who conducted a sting operation to expose corruption in the subordinate judiciary in Gujarat.

The Bench ordered that all the records summoned from the magistrate's court through the Gujarat High Court registrar-general and the video tapes and other documents produced by the petitioner be immediately handed over to the CBI for conducting the probe.

The apex court clarified that its order would not preclude the Gujarat High Court from taking disciplinary action against the judicial officer allegedly involved in the matter.

The court issued notices to the Centre, the Gujarat government, the Gujarat High Court registrar-general, "erring" metropolitan magistrate Brahm Bhatt, Suresh Jethalal Sanghvi- on whose purported complaint bailable warrants were issued- and lawyers Iqbal Katia, Narender Chaudhary and Harish Bhawaniwala - who acted as middlemen between the complainant and the magistrate to "procure" the warrants for Rs 40,000.

"Look at what is happening. You can get an arrest warrant for Rs 40,000. Time has come to take strict action otherwise nothing would remain,' an anguished chief justice Khare said.

"If this is the state of affairs, only god knows what will happen to the country," Khare had observed yesterday after Salve mentioned the PIL filed by the TV journalist.

The apex court Bench asked Attorney-General Soli J Sorabjee to come out with suggestions to improve the judicial system. Sorabjee agreed to do so by the next date of hearing.