Letter casts aspersions on judges hearing spectrum case
By IANSWednesday, November 24, 2010
NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Wednesday revealed that it had received a letter alleging that the bench hearing the case related to allocation of spectrum to mobile companies had been “managed”.
The apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly’s revelation shocked the people present in the court including Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium and senior counsel K.K. Venugopal, T.R. Andhyarijuna and Prashant Bhushan.
The letter written by a person in Chennai was thrown in the waste paper basket by Justice Ganguly after it was delivered to him.
Subramanium told the court that a mechanism should be put in place so that such communications are filtered out at the entry stage itself.
The solicitor general said that the court was entitled to make any observation in the course of the proceedings it deems necessary.
When Bhushan said that this was a ploy to put pressure on the court or make the judges withdraw from the matter, the court said that this was a natural inference that could be possibly drawn.
When Bhushan suggested that, since the letter was signed by the writer, contempt of court proceedings should be initiated against him, the court said: “We don’t consider (it’s) worth it.”
The court put the lid on the matter after it observed: “We are also human beings. After 40 years we don’t want to disturb our peace.”
