SC seeks report from Madras HC on delayed detailed judgment post retirement of judge
Supreme Court has directed the registrar general of the Madras High Court to furnish a report following a claim by the Central Bureau of Investigation that a Madras High Court judge passed a single line order in its case but made the detailed order available after he demitted office.
A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and Augustine George Masih was informed that the operative portion of the judgment was delivered before the judge retired.
But the detailed judgment was made available on the high court website only after Justice T Mathivanan demitted office in May 2017. The judgment pertained to quashing a corruption case filed by CBI against an IRS officer.
The development took place during the resumed hearing of a CBI plea challenging quashing of a disproportionate assets case against an IRS officer of the 1999 batch.
SC directed the Madras HC registrar general to provide the date on which the detailed judgment was received by the registry from the judge's office and the date when the detailed judgment was uploaded. It also asked whether there was any administrative direction from the chief justice of the HC for a de novo hearing of nine cases that were heard by the judge and whether the case that is the subject matter of the current SLP was included among those cases.
CBI has claimed before the top court that the Madras HC judge passed a one-line order in court on May 15, 2017, and on the same day, it applied for a certified copy of the order. The agency has further alleged that the registry orally
