Tehseen Poonawalla vs Union of India

REPORTABLE

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION

MA NO 1607 OF 2018 IN IA NOS.14870-14871 OF 2018 IN WRIT PETITION (C) NO 19 OF 2018

TEHSEEN POONAWALLA ..PETITIONER

VERSUS

UNION OF INDIA & ANR. ..RESPONDENT

AND IN THE MATTER OF :

ADMIRAL MR LAXMINARAYAN RAMDAS (RETD.)

AND IN THE MATTER OF :

MS INDIRA JAISING

ORDER

Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, J

Signature Not Verified Digitally signed by SUBHASH CHANDER Date: 2018.09.26 16:01:05 IST Reason: 1 Ms Indira Jaising has moved a Miscellaneous Application seeking the

following reliefs :

2

“a) Issue appropriate order or direction expunging/deleting the remarks made against the counsel for present intervenor/applicant herein that the conduct of the counsel/applicant herein amounted to contempt or prima facie contempt of court, namely the following :

“74. The present case is indeed a case in point. Repeatedly, counsel for the petitioners and intervenors have attempted to inform the court that they have no personal agenda and that they have instituted these proceedings to protect judicial independence. An aura of good faith has been sought to be created by submitting that the true purpose of seeking an inquiry into the circumstances relating to the death of Judge Loya is to protect the district judiciary(…)”

“75.[…] Ms Jaising has joined the fray by requesting that this court to issue contempt notices to the Administrative Committee of the Bombay High Court…”

“76. […] The conduct of the petitioners and the intervenors scandalises the process of the court and prima facie constitutes criminal contempt…”

“78. [...] The conduct of the petitioners and the intervenors is, as we have indicated, lacking in bona fides and reveals a misuse of judicial process.”

b) Issue appropriate order or direction issuing a clarification that the counsel for the present intervener/applicant herein has not furthered any submissions or engaged in conduct which may amount to contempt of Court if it so deems fit;

c) Call for High Court of Bombay for the records of the meeting of administrative committee of the High Court dated 25.06.2014 to ascertain the reasons for transfer to Judge Utpat, and to ascertain whether the consent of this Hon’ble Court was obtained or whether this Hon’ble Court was kept informed that Judge Utpat was being transferred;”

In the batch of cases which was adjudicated upon in the judgment of this Court

dated 19 April 2018 Ms Jaising represented an intervenor (Admiral Ramdas).

2 Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi appearing on behalf of the applicant

submitted that whatever be the conduct of the other learned counsel who 3

appeared on behalf of the petitioners and intervenors before this Court, Ms

Jaising has had no intention to make any submission that would denigrate or

scandalise the judiciary. It was urged that in making the submission about the

Administrative Committee of the Bombay High Court she has not scandalised

the judiciary and that neither the written submissions nor the oral submissions

would amount to scandalising the process of the Court. Dr Singhvi urged that

the observations contained in paragraphs 74, 75, 76 and 78 of the judgment

(extracted in prayer clause (a) above) would appear to give the impression that

all counsel before the Court had made the same submission, though each of

the arguing counsel had urged distinct submissions. It has been submitted that

Ms Jaising has a standing of over five decades at the Bar and that her track

record would indicate anything but a desire to denigrate the judiciary.

3 Mr Mukul Rohatgi, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the

State of Maharashtra opposed the application. Learned counsel submitted that

each one of the submissions attributed to Ms Jaising was in fact urged by her

in the course of the proceedings. Mr Rohatgi drew the attention of the Court to

prayer clause (c) of the Miscellaneous Application by which the records of the

meeting of the Administrative Committee of the High Court dated 25 June 2014

are sought to be summoned to ascertain the reasons for the transfer of Judge

Utpat, and to ascertain whether the consent of this Court was obtained (and

whether it was kept informed of his proposed transfer). Mr Rohatgi submitted

that prayer (c) is indicative of the fact that the Miscellaneous Application has 4

not been filed to pursue her own interest as counsel practicing before this Court

but to revive the controversy which has been settled by the judgment of this

Court.

4 Faced with the objection raised by Mr Rohatgi in regard to prayer clause

(c) of the application, Dr Singhvi submitted in the course of his rejoinder that

the prayer is being given up. It would be necessary to record Mr Rohatgi’s

submission that if, as submitted by Dr Singhvi, the inclusion of prayer clause (c)

was inadvertent, the statement that the prayer is being given up ought to have

been made before submissions commenced, prior to an objection being raised

on his behalf.

5 The first aspect of the matter which needs to be noted is that paragraph

75 of the judgment records the submission which was urged by the applicant

namely, that contempt notices should be issued to the Administrative

Committee of the High Court. That such a submission was made is not in

dispute. In fact in paragraph 9.3 of the Miscellaneous Application, the applicant

has repeated the submission, reiterating that it was urged before this Court.

Prayer clause (c) of the application as it was originally filed was based on that

submission.

6 The application proceeds on the basis that the observations which were

made in regard to the conduct of the petitioners and intervenors attach to the 5

applicant personally. In paragraphs 76 and 78, this Court has adverted to “the

conduct of the petitioners and the intervenors” (emphasis supplied). If the

applicant identifies with the intervenor, that is a matter of perception for counsel.

The observations of the Court advert to the conduct of the petitioners and

intervenors. The findings of this Court are based on what was argued during

the course of the hearing.

7 The Miscellaneous Application is accordingly disposed of.

.................................................CJI [Dipak Misra]

.....................................................J [A M Khanwilkar]

.....................................................J [Dr Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud]

New Delhi;

September 26, 2018