“I had no knowledge whatsoever” that the NEET judgment was leaked, says former CJI Altamas Kabir to CNN IBN

Former Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir has in an interview with the CNN IBN said he had no knowledge that the NEET judgment was leaked. In the interview with Karan Thapar, Justice Kabir has spoken on various other issues including Justice Dave’s dissenting judgment in the NEET case, CJI Sathasivam’s observation in the ‘Jai Prakash Associates’ matter and corruption in the judiciary. .On being asked by Thapar whether it was true that the NEET judgment had leaked Justice Kabir replied:.“I wouldn’t know because I didn’t know it was leaked. I had no knowledge whatsoever.”.On being pressed further on how Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan was able to accurately predict the outcome of the case including Justice Dave’s dissent, Justice Kabir replied that the fact that Justice Dave would dissent was not known even to them “till the very end” and if the leak had happened in his Chambers how could anyone get to know that Justice Dave would dissent. He said that the prediction by Sankaranarayanan was a speculation and he was absolutely confident that the judgment was not leaked from his Chambers either at the Supreme Court or at his residence..Regarding Justice Dave’s remark in the NEET judgment that he was delivering a short judgment because of paucity of time, Justice Kabir said that the copy of his judgment was given to Justice Dave one week prior to the pronouncement and, therefore, Justice Dave had sufficient time to look into Justice Kabir’s judgment..When asked about the observation by current Justice Sathasivam’s Bench that Justice Kabir had wrongly taken up the Jai Prakash Associates matter and passed an interim order, Justice Kabir said that he discussed the matter with both Justice Sathasivam and Justice Gogoi and they denied making any such observations. “I will request them to give it to me in writing and then I shall, if necessary, take it up with the Times of India,” he added. He said that he was feeling both embarrassed and annoyed and that if the ToI news turned out to be true, then Chief Justice Sathasivam owed him an apology..When asked whether he had any enemies, Justice Kabir replied that Prashant Bhushan was one of his enemies. Calling all the allegations as canards, he also said that he felt certain section of the media was targeting him. He also said that ToI stories seemed motivated..He said that the issue of corruption in the judiciary was highly exaggerated. Regarding the Collegium system for the appointment of judges, he said that “under the circumstances, it is the best we can have”.