Former CJI Altamas Kabir issues public statement; Clarifies position in Sahara-SEBI matter, replies to Bhaskar Bhattacharya and denies any impropriety while heading Collegium

The former Chief Justice of India (CJI), Altamas Kabir has issued a public statement replying to the allegations levelled against him. Kabir served as the CJI for nine months before retiring on July 18, 2013. The final stages of his tenure was marred by controversies which he has sought to clarify vide a letter to Gujarat Chief Justice Bhattacharya and a press release..In the letter to Gujarat Chief Justice Bhattacharya, the President and the Prime Minister, and the press release Justice Kabir has clarified his role in light of allegations relating to the denial of Supreme Court berth to Justice Bhattacharya, the alleged attempts made by Justice Kabir to rush through the elevation of a High Court judge, and the extension of time to the Sahara group companies to pay the second round of installements to SEBI..With regard to the allegation of denying Gujarat CJ Bhattacharya a place in the Supreme Court, Justice Kabir has offered the following explanation:.“For the purpose of nominating eligible persons to be elevated to the Supreme Court, the Collegium which is comprised of five senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice, take[s] a collective decision in the matter. Usually the decision is unanimous but if more than two judges dissent, the name is not recommended………It is unfortunate that although in the case of Gujarat Chief Justice, the decision of the Collegium was unanimous, the matter was reported in such a manner so as to give an impression that it was my individual bias which prevented the Gujarat Chief Justice from being given a berth in the Supreme Court.”.Justice Kabir has also said in the letter that the reason he did not respond to the March 19 letter penned by Justice Bhattacharya was because he realised that, “the letter was written in a fit of anger.” Justice Kabir’s letter remains silent on why he wrote to the President, stating that the apppointment of Bhattacharya would be counterproductive and not conducive to administration of justice..With respect to the purported attempts made by him to elevate a judge of the High Court to the Supreme Court a fortnight before his retirement, Kabir has stated that his attempt was to ensure that Madhya Pradesh was represented in the Supreme Court as there was no Supreme Court judge from that State since August, 2012. He also clarified that the process had begun “soon after he assumed office….but got deferred on one pretext or the other”. Justice Kabir also wrote that the meeting of July 2, 2013 was not called by him but by the other members of the Collegium even when they knew that by that time, the new CJI would have been appointed. On July 2, it was the rest of the Collegium who informed Justice Kabir that since new Chief Justice had been nominated, no further meetings of the Collegium could be held..Regarding the allegation related to SEBI Sahara matter Justice Kabir has written,.“In this matter we were faced with a situation, where there were a large number of depositors who had not been paid their dues. Since the matter had already been disposed of with a direction for payment of dues in installments and since one installment had already been deposited by Sahara and they only wanted extension of time to deposit the second installment, we felt it to be in the interest of the depositors, to extend the time for depositing the installments by a short period, as that would give them a chance to recover their dues quickly instead of having to wait till SEBI attached and sold the properties of Sahara which could turn out to be a long drawn affair. The decision to extend the time for depositing the installments was the joint decision of the Bench upon consultation.”.A copy of the press release is given below: