CBI, Delhi Police officials to watch over Supreme Court Registry

In light of recent incidents that brought the integrity of the Supreme Court Registry under the scanner, officials of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Delhi Police will be deputed to the Apex Court to keep a close watch on things, TOI reports..As per the report, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has decided to draft in senior superintendents of police (SSPs) and SPs from the CBI and the Delhi Police to watch over the officials of the Supreme Court Registry. In a first, police officers will hold posts in the Registry like those of additional registrar, deputy registrar, branch officers and senior court assistants in a bid to keep a close eye on the nexus between lawyers and Registry officials..The TOI report quotes an official as saying,.“They [police officers] will look after vigilance work like verification of antecedents of employees, both existing and those inducted in future. These officers will also look after investigative work in case of criminal complaints against registry staff.”.Earlier this year, two court masters were sacked for tampering with an order of the Supreme Court in Ericsson’s contempt plea against Reliance Communications and Anil Ambani. Manav Sharma and Tapan Kumar Chakraborty were later arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch for apparently tampering with the order..The order in question was of January 7, wherein the Court had issued notice to Anil Ambani and had sought his personal appearance. However, when the order was uploaded on the website it read:.“personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) dispensed with”.This had been brought to the Court’s notice by Ericsson counsel and a corrected order was uploaded on the website on January 10..After a preliminary inquiry, it was found that the omission of the word “not” in the order was not accidental. An order was passed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on the administrative side dismissing the two employees..Later, in the wake of the sexual harassment allegations leveled against CJI Gogoi, the Supreme Court had constituted a Special Bench to take up suo motu a “matter of great public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary”. The Court also took on record an affidavit filed by lawyer Utsav Bains, who had made allegations that a conspiracy against CJI Gogoi was afoot. The Court went on to appoint former judge Justice AK Patnaik to look into the issue..The order dated April 24 also makes a note of the allegations made by Bains against employees of the Supreme Court Registry..“He has further mentioned in the affidavit that the disgruntled employees have ganged together in order to frame Hon’ble The Chief Justice of India in the false charge of sexual harassment after their dismissal from their services. He has named in particular, names of Tapan Kumar Chakraborty and Manav Sharma and others.”Bains had also made allegations of “bench-fixing” in the Supreme Court..All these incidents seem to have prompted CJI Gogoi to feel the need to appoint police officers to keep tabs on the functioning of the Supreme Court Registry.