SC plea on bribes taken in judges' names sent to constitution bench

The apex court issued the notice to Centre & CBI on the plea which sought setting up of a SIT to be headed by a former SC judge

The Supreme Court today referred a plea regarding alleged bribes being taken in the names of judges to a Constitution Bench comprising top five senior-most apex court judges.

The apex court issued the notice to the Centre and the CBI on the plea which sought setting up of a SIT to be headed by a former Supreme Court judge and monitored by the court.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and S Abdul Nazeer directed the CBI to keep in safe custody the documents and relevant materials with regard to the FIR lodged by it on September 19 in which a former Odisha High Court judge has also been named as an accused.
 

The bench said the CBI should place in a sealed cover, the documents and relevant materials of the case before the Constitution Bench on November 13.

The CBI FIR has alleged that the ex-High court judge and others had hatched a conspiracy and demanded huge gratification assuring favourable settlement of a case relating to medical college admissions in the apex court.

At the outset, former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Dushyant Dave said the Chief Justice of India could not hear this matter as the allegations are related to a case heard by the bench headed by him.

Earlier in the day, the apex court had agreed to urgently hear the plea regarding allegations of bribes being taken in the name of judges.