NEW DELHI: A PIL (Public Interest Litigation) has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the police to register an FIR against Justice Yashwant Varma, as a huge sum of unaccounted money, was allegedly recovered from his official residence.
The PIL was filed jointly by three lawyers -- Mathews J Nedumpara, Hemali Suresh Kurne, Rajesh Vishnu Adrekar -- and a Chartered Accountant, Mansha Nimesh Mehta, in the top court.
The petition, a copy accessed by TNIE, sought to declare that the 3-member Committee constituted by the collegium has no jurisdiction to conduct a probe into the incident that occurred on March, 14, at the official resident of Justice Varma where heaps of currency notes were by chance recovered in a fire constituting various cognisable under the BNS (Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita).
The plea said that the resolution of the collegium investing the Committee the power to conduct such an investigation is one rendered void ab initio inasmuch as the collegium cannot confer jurisdiction upon itself to order so where the Parliament or the Constitution has conferred none.
"The fire force/police when their services for sought to douse fire, constitute a cognisable offence punishable under various provisions of the BNS and that the police is duty bound to register an FIR," the plea said.
"The observations in the judgment of the Supreme Court in K. Veeraswami against UOI prohibiting that no criminal case shall be registered against a judge of a High court or Supreme Court without the prior permission of the Chief Justice of India is one rendered per incuriam and sub silentio. The police is duty bound to register an FIR when it receives information of a cognisable offence," the plea said.
The petitioners sought order from the top court directing the Respondents/ Delhi Police to register an FIR (First Information Report) and cause an effective and meaningful investigation. They sought restraining and prohibiting any person or authority, even authorities as contemplated in K. Veeraswami's case, from interfering with the sovereign policing function in the probe.
The plea further sought that appropriate order be made directing the Government to take effective and meaningful action for curbing corruption across all levels of judiciary, including the enactment of the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010, which had lapsed.
The plea added that equality before law and equal protection of law is the core of our constitution. "All are equal before law and the criminal laws apply equally to all, irrespective of one's status, position, etc. The only exception, may immunity, in our constitutional scheme is extended to the President and the Governors, the sovereign who represents we the people," it added.
The plea submitted that the law is the very edifice on which the concept of rule of law is built. Even the King is not considered above law, but under God and the law. However, a 5-judge constitution bench of this Court in Veeraswami versus Union of India, in 1991, directed that no criminal case shall be registered under Section 154 of the CrPC against a judge of the High Court, Chief Justice of a High Court or judge of the Supreme Court unless the Chief Justice of India is consulted in the matter.