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The President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), Rakesh Khanna has issued a letter distancing the SCBA from a legal conference recently organised by India Legal and APN News. Objecting to the promotion of the event as having been organised in partnership with SCBA, the letter goes on to state that Justice NV Ramana and other dignitaries were misled in this regard.
“It seems to me that Hon’ble Mr. Justice NV Ramana and other dignities have been completely misled in as far as the associations/partnership of SCBA with India Legal/APN News for the aforementioned conference is concerned. The use of SCBA’s name and its logo without any intimation or consensual of the EC is completely unauthorised, unethical and illegal.”
The controversy comes in the backdrop of a case of apparent misappropriation of SCBA funds which was unearthed last February. To look into the matter, an Enquiry Committee comprising Senior Advocates Shekhar Naphade, Amrendra Saran and CU Singh was constituted. The letter informs that the Committee thereafter faced “all kinds of allurements and pressure tactics, to which some EC members evidently fell prey”.
Further, an undated letter signed by 12 members of the Executive Committee (EC), and an email by Professor Bhim Singh, were placed before the Enquiry Committee on April 15. By this representation, it was declared that these members did not want an enquiry against the SCBA Secretary and Treasurer in the pending matter concerning unauthorised payments out of the funds.
However, the Enquiry Committee refused to take cognisance of the letter. It proceeded to continue its enquiry and concluded the same as well.
Five days later came the Special Bench sitting held by the Supreme Court on April 20 morning, following reports of sexual harassment allegations against the Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi. Three members of the SCBA is said to have appeared in Court on that day i.e. its President, Khanna, Senior Advocate Vinay Kumar Garg and Preeti Singh, the Joint Secretary. This was after an urgent notice was received at 10 AM.
Two days later, an agenda was circulated for an emergency meeting to discuss “about the action of the President of SCBA, who appeared before the Bench …. and made statement without consultation of EC and other related issues.”
However, it is stated, the meeting turned out to be yet another attempt to withdraw the enquiry against the Secretary and the Treasurer in the fund misappropriation issue.
It was also discovered that the undated later, rejected on April 15 by the Enquiry Committee, was somehow “surreptitiously pasted” by the Secretary into the SCBA minutes dated March 14. Strong objection to this was raised by certain members i.e. Vice President, Senior Advocate JM Sharma, Senior Advocate Jayant K Sud, Senior Advocate Vinay K Garg and Advocate Shamshravish Rein.
In this meeting, the members who had signed the letter also requested that the Enquiry Committee give quietus to the fund misappropriation matter, subject to these members/office bearers recompensing the entire money paid towards printing and dispatch of the audit reports, with the SCBA.
As regards the Supreme Court’s special bench sitting on April 20, the President also offered his explanation for his appearance, informs his letter.
Subsequently, a conference was organised in Mumbai on April 27. The Conference was organised by India Legal and APN News, projecting that it was organised in partnership with the SCBA. The letter denies such partnership, pointing out that no approval for same has been given. It points out,
“… SCBA in its Resolution dated 11.04.2019, had specifically resolved that decisions taken by all (any) Sub-Committees of SCBA, will have to be placed before the EC of the SCBA for approval before execution. No such resolution or decision had been placed…for any such permission/partnership in a conference organised by India Legal or APN News… The information about this programme was never communicated to me or the members of SCBA.”
The letter goes on to highlight that some of the members who had objected to the Enquiry Committee’s continued proceedings were sponsored to attend the conference.
“I am informed that barring Ms Preeti Singh, Joint Secretary and Ms Mukti Chaudhary, Executive Member, SCBA, all the above 12 members as well as Mr JK Das have been sponsored to a 3 days sojourn in Mumbai.”
Reiterating that no SCBA funds were authorised to be used for the conference, the letter states,
“Respected members, your discontent and resentment has been noticed by me and some members have even gone to the extent of venting out their anger by asking how much money has SCBA taken to lend its name. As the President of SCBA, I concur with you and join you all in the resentment and anguish against the manner in which the SCBA platform has been exploited and misused.”
Read the Letter: