Click to play videoNew Delhi: Justice A R Lakshmanan of the Supreme Court broke down in open court on Friday and refused to hear a review plea by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's son Akhilesh Yadav.
Akhilesh, MP from Kannauj, has filed a review petition in the court seeking a stay on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe against him till Assembly elections end in UP. The CBI is probing a disproportionate assets case filed against him.
Lakshmanan said he received an anonymous letter in the morning which cast aspersions on his integrity.
The one page letter to Justice Lakshmanan was sent through fax from an unknown number on Friday morning. The fax was sent at his residence.
"In seventeen-and-a-half years of my judicial career, I have never gone through such a thing. I am very much pained. The contents of the letter are so heinous that my wife and I are very disturbed," he was quoted by news agency PTI as saying in a voice choking down with emotion and tears in his eyes.
Justice Lakshmanan is due to retire in five days time on March 22, when he turns 65 years old.
Lakshmanan, who was to hear the petition this morning, said he was withdrawing himself as the letter had pained him.
Akhilesh’s petition will now be placed before the Chief Justice of India, who will decide which of the 25 senior judges in the country will hear the case.
Supreme Court lawyers were shocked and pleaded with Lakshmanan to ignore the letter but he refused to listen to them.
A bench headed by Lakshmanan on Tuesday refused to entertain Mulayam's plea for stopping the CBI but allowed him to file a review petition.
The Samajwadi Party has been raising this point time and again saying that the judgement which Justice A R Lakshmanan delivered on the disproportionate assets case was a politically motivated judgement and not a judgement based on sound legal arguments.
The Supreme Court is now slated to hear Akhilesh Yadav's review petition next week.
"I do not want to comment as the matter is subjudice. People do receive such letters," said Mulayam Singh Yadav when asked what he thought about the matter.
This is not the first time that a judge has withdrawn himself from a case.
Supreme Court judge Justice D K Jain withdrew from the hearing of a case against Parkash Singh Badal.
Before that, Justice Dilip Bhosale of the Bombay High Court withdrew while hearing of a bail plea filed by former deputy police commissioner of Mumbai Pradeep Sawant, an accused in the fake stamp paper scam.
AKHILESH'S PETITION |
It said the court had failed to appreciate that the Income Tax department was looking into the matter. Therefore, a CBI enquiry into the same matter was unnecessary, incorrect in law and should be recalled. It said the judgement had virtually left the petitioner and his family members at the mercy of the CBI and those at the helm of the central government, who were actually behind the veil of the public interest litigant seeking political mileage out of it. Akhilesh Yadav also apprehended that the impugned judgement might be cited/used for future political litigations that might arise in different courts of the country. He sought a direction to stay the impugned judgement till May 31 by which date the assembly elections would be completed in the state. |
In his petition, Akhilesh Yadav said the court in its March 1 judgment had seriously erred by directing a preliminary enquiry by the CBI.
(With inputs from Ashok Bagariya)
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
TOP NEWS
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
