Supreme Court to hear former CJI Altamas Kabir age row

Controversy surrounding former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Altamas Kabir never seems to die down. Latest is a petition by one Nirmal Jit Singh Hoon seeking an inquiry into the date of birth of the former CJI..Hoon has appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision of the Delhi High Court dismissing his petition. The High Court had also imposed a cost of Rs. 20,000 on Hoon while dismissing the petition..When the matter came up before a three judge Bench comprising Chief Justice RM Lodha and Justices Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph yesterday, Hoon – appearing in person – alleged that Justice Kabir had misrepresented his date of birth. Hoon also submitted that Justice Kabir’s matriculation certificate was missing from service records and responses to RTI queries about the same were evasive..The Court, thought initially hesitant, heard the petitioner for an hour and posted the matter for the second week of August..Justice Kabir’s retirement was embroiled in controversy with allegations of corruption surfacing after the leak of NEET judgment. Further, Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court Bhaskar Bhattacharya had alleged that Justice Kabir had opposed his elevation to the Supreme Court because he had refused to elevate Justice Kabir’s sister to Calcutta High Court..It will be interesting to see if the Supreme Court would entertain this matter considering the fact that Justice Kabir is no longer in service – one of the reasons why the High Court had dismissed the petition.