The reference to Bombay High Court judges, who had closed a criminal case involving Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, by senior advocate Dushayant Dave in the B H Loya case did not go down well with the Supreme Court which rapped him for casting aspersions on the judiciary.
The top court took strong note of Dave's plea to bring on record the order of the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court to allege that one of the two judges, who had given a statement in the special CBI Judge B H Loya death case, had ordered settlement of a criminal case against the chief minister in 2014.
Dave, representing the Bombay Lawyers Association (BLA), had said a bench of justices B R Gawai and V M Deshpande had closed the prosecution against Fadnavis and others in criminal cases lodged way back in 1991.
Alleging political affiliations, Dave had said the judge concerned was one of those who had said he was with Judge Loya on the fateful day when he had died of a heart attack.
The apex court noted that Dave had gone to the "extent of insinuating that one individual is controlling the entire judiciary in Maharashtra and elsewhere."
Strongly disapproving Dave's act, a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud. said the attempt of the petitioners was to malign the dignity of the judges and sensationalise the case.
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"We are rather surprised at the manner in which an insinuation has been made by producing the above order, which was passed in completely unrelated proceedings. The insinuation is against the judges of the Bombay High Court at Nagpur for having quashed a criminal case in which the present Chief Minister was involved...
"The attempt of the petitioners is to create prejudice and to malign the dignity of the judges, particularly of Justice BR Gavai...What is worse is the manner in which wholly unfounded aspersions have been cast on the judges of the Bombay High Court following a decision.which has been taken in the judicial capacity. This constitutes a serious attempt to scandalise the court and obstruct the course of justice," the bench said.
The apex court also rejected Dave's submission that the statements of the judicial officers who accompanied Loya to hospital "cannot be regarded as independent" as two judges of the High Court had taken the view that Loya's death was due to natural causes.
"Dave submitted that judicial officers in the district judiciary could not be expected to take a plea at variance with what was stated by the two judges of the HC. He urged that disciplinary action should be initiated against the two High Court judges. This submission is preposterous. It constitutes an undisguised attempt to malign four senior judicial officers and the judges of the High Court," the court said.
The top court took umbrage against Dave seeking to cross-examine the four judges who had accompanied Loya to the hospital.
It said the conduct of the judges --Shrikant Kulkarni and S M Modak, V C Barde and Roopesh Rathi -- cannot be questioned and there was no reason for this court to doubt the veracity of their statements.
"The petitioners cannot assert as a matter of right that they should be allowed to cross-examine a host of persons including the doctors and judicial officers. By casting unfounded aspersions on the judicial officers who had accompanied judge Loya, the petitioners have revealed the real motive of these proceedings, which is to bring the judiciary into disrepute on the basis of scurrilous allegations.
"We find no basis or justification to allow the request for cross-examination. The application shall accordingly stand rejected," the bench said.
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