Apex court to hear Allahabad High Court’s plea Friday

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Friday would hear the Allahabad High Courts petition for expunging adverse remarks from an apex court judgment that said that something was rotten about the high court and it needed cleansing.

The petition was filed Wednesday following the decision of the full bench of the high court, which took exception to the adverse remarks by the Supreme Court.

The high court said that the apex court exercised just the appellate jurisdiction over the verdicts of the high courts.

“The jurisdiction exercised by the Supreme Court over the high court is only appellate,” the petition said.

The petition will be heard by the Supreme Court bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra, which had slammed the Allahabad High Court while delivering Nov 26 judgment.

The petition filed by the registrar general of the Allahabad High Court contested the apex courts power to supervise high courts.

The petition said that the high court held that the Supreme Court “does not exercise any supervisory power as such over the high courts”.

The apex court held that the problem was not peculiar to the Allahabad High Court but was an institutional problem.

Following the apex court judgment, Lucknow-based doctor Nutan Thakur moved the high court seeking removal of all those judges who were accused of misconduct and against whom complaints had been sent to the apex court.

In its verdict last month, the Supreme Court bench slammed the high court for passing shocking and outrageous orders on extraneous considerations that shook the faith of the common man in judicial functioning.

Asking the chief justice of the Allahabad High Court to take some strong measures for house cleaning, the apex court said that kith and kin of certain judges were shamelessly taking advantage of their relationship and enjoying luxurious life.

The apex court said: We are sorry to say but a lot of complaints are coming against certain judges of the Allahabad High Court relating to their integrity. Some judges have their kith and kin practicing in the same court, and within a few years of starting practice, the sons and relations of judges become multi-millionaire, have huge bank balances, luxurious cars, huge houses and (are) enjoying luxurious life.

The court’s stinging censure of the Allahabad High Court came in the wake of the orders of a single-judge bench of the high court, in which he directed the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board to allot Waqf land to Raja Khan for running a circus and swings in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh.

The order of the single judge was set aside by a division bench of the high court. It was this order of the division bench that Raja Khan had challenged in the apex court.

The apex court upheld the bench ruling and said that the order of the single judge of the high court was passed on extraneous considerations.