The NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms has filed a complaint against CJI Dipak Misra to five seniormost judges of the Supreme Court after him ~ Justices J Chelameswar, R Gogoi, M B Lokur, K Joseph and A K Sikri ~ under an “in-house” procedure. The 24-page complaint, signed by senior lawyer and CJAR convener Prashant Bhushan, calls for an inquiry against the CJI by either three or five senior Supreme Court judges for what is described as “various allegations of misconduct” against him.

The complaint dated 15 January and its massive annexures were released at a press conference addressed by Bhushan on Tuesday afternoon. He alleged that the key charges against the CJI include “the manner in which the case of the Prasad Education Trust (involving the Lucknow medical college or judges bribery scam) was dealt with by Chief Justice Misra, in which case the CBI has registered an FIR regarding an alleged conspiracy to bribe judges of the Supreme Court to secure favourable judgments”. He said “phone transcripts available with the CBI of conversations between a retired judge, middlemen and representatives of the medical college show discussion about amount of bribe, dates and progress of this case being discussed.”

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The complaint has been filed under the “in-house” procedure for investigating complaints against judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court. Bhushan said, “Though this procedure is silent with respect to complaints against the Chief Justice himself, it is obvious that complaints against the CJI cannot be examined by the Chief Justice himself and therefore must be examined by the next judge in seniority or by a Collegium of senior judges.” The CJAR’s complaint alleges, “The CBI FIR makes allegations that the entire conspiracy and planning was to bribe and influence apex court judges who are dealing with the case of Trust. This Bench was clearly headed by CJI. In these circumstances, he was an interested party and could not have dealt with this case either on the judicial or even on the administrative side by way of assigning a particular Bench to hear this case.”