#Breaking: Petition on attempt to bribe SC judges to be heard by Constitution Bench

A Constitution Bench of the first five judges in the order of seniority of the Supreme Court will hear a petition filed by advocate Kamini Jaiswal on the attempt to bribe judges of the apex court in a case relating to medical colleges..A Bench of Justices Jasti Chelameswar and Abdul Nazeer heard Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave, before proceeding to order that the matter raises serious issues and needs to be heard by a Constitution Bench of the first five judges..Earlier today, Dave, appearing for Jaiswal, had mentioned the matter before Justice Chelameswar, who had agreed to hear it at 12:45 PM..Dave told the Court that as per the FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a retired High Court judge and certain others had sought huge gratification from a party to a case in return for inducing high public functionaries to enable a settlement of a matter relating to medical colleges in Supreme Court..As reported earlier, the CBI had registered a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act against former judge of the Allahabad and Orissa High Courts, Justice IM Quddusi and other in connection with the case..The CBI had arrested the accused, but they were subsequently granted bail, and the same was not challenged by CBI..Dave told the Court that the prayer of the petitioner is to constitute an SIT to investigate the allegations, with a retired judge monitoring the same. He submitted,.“Has the CBI deliberately filed a false case to discredit the institution? That is my worry. So truth needs to come out.”.After a brief discussion, the Court decided to refer the matter to a Constitution Bench..Most interestingly, a note received by the Bench from the Registry during the course of the hearing, purportedly issued by the Chief Justice of India, has also been made part of the record by Chelameswar J. The order states,.“But, at the same time, we are also duty bound to place the developments that when the hearing of the matter was in progress, the Officer of the Registry placed a xerox copy of the proceedings purportedly issued by Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India, a copy of which is annexed to this Order.”.Dave prayed that it should be made it clear that the Chief Justice of India should not be part of the Constitution Bench or decide the Bench which should hear the case..“That is why we have said first five judges”, the Bench responded..The Court issued notice to the Centre and the CBI, which was also directed to submit all material and documents relevant to the investigation forthwith to the Supreme Court..The case has now been listed for hearing on Monday next week..On a related note, the Constitution Bench headed by CJI Misra, which was hearing the case on NCT of Delhi v. Union of India, curiously rose before 12 pm before reassembling again at 2.15 pm..Read the Order