SC imposes Rs 25 lakh cost on CJAR

New Delhi, Dec 1 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday imposed a Rs 25 lakh cost on NGO Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR) that had sought a court-monitored SIT probe into the allegation of graft involving a retired judge of Orissa High Court.

A bench of Justice R.K. Agrawal, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar said that the amount would be deposited with the Supreme Court Bar Association.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against a retired Orissa High Court judge I.M. Quddusi and others for hatching a conspiracy to help a Lucknow-based medical college to get over the bar on admitting students for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic year, assuring a favourable order from the court.

The CJAR had moved the top court on November 8 seeking probe by a SIT headed by a former Chief Justice of the top court to probe the allegation against Quddusi and other middlemen.

The court had earlier on November 14 rejected an identical petition by lawyer Kamini Jaiswal as it described the allegations as "scandalous" and had observed that the whole controversy has damaged the image of the top judiciary and created doubts about its integrity.

The court by the order then had said: "We find that filing of such petitions and the zest with which it is pursued, has brought the entire system in the last few days to unrest. An effort was made to create ripples in this court; serious and unwanted shadow of doubt has been created for no good reason whatsoever by way of filing the petition which was wholly scandalous and ought not to have been filed in such a method and manner. It is against the settled proposition of law."

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