Chief Justice of Supreme Court Y.K. Sabharwal at his residence in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

NEW DELHI: The outgoing Chief Justice of India, Y.K. Sabharwal, on Saturday denied that there was any "distrust" between him and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in the elevation of Justice Vijender Jain as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Addressing a press conference before demitting office, Mr. Justice Sabharwal said: "I have the highest regard for the President. This is another case in which the media has to share the blame for tarnishing the image of the judiciary by projecting it based on unverified facts. Since a considerable amount of damage has been done to the image of judiciary in this case, I must clear the air of suspicion."

Narrating the sequence of events, he said the wedding of the grand-daughter of Hariram was conducted in the house of Mr. Justice Jain in 2001 (at that time he was a Judge of the Delhi High Court) on a request from another Judge, Justice Arun Kumar. However, Mr. Justice Jain did not know anything about Hariram. In 2004, there was a civil dispute between Mr. Hariram and his brother and this suit was said to have been disposed of by Mr. Justice Jain in favour of Mr. Hariram.

"This is the allegation that is put against Justice Jain in his tenure as a judge for about 13 to 14 years. Simply because his residence was used as a venue for conducting a marriage it cannot be said that Justice Jain had favoured Hariram. During the trial of the case, there was not even a whisper from anyone that Justice Jain knew Hariram. The matter has not even come to the Supreme Court on appeal. We had gone through the complaint and found there was nothing in it to stop him from being elevated when his turn for elevation came."

Mr. Justice Sabharwal said: "Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and other senior judges agreed on the elevation of Justice Jain and whatever I told you, I had put in on record and sent it to the Government and the President. There was absolutely no distrust between me and the President and whatever details sought by the President were provided. Though it is history now, it is a matter of sadness for me but let us now bury the matter."

The CJI said: "It deserves to be remembered by all, including the media, that conventionally judges do not have any forum and I am happy that they do not have any forum to go to the press and go on issuing clarifications." He said that since there happened to be so much of responsibility on the shoulder of the media, it should be careful in verifying the facts before projecting them before the public."

Similarly, on media reports against Justice Jagdish Bhalla (who was recommended for elevation as Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court), he said Mr. Justice Bhalla's wife was said to have purchased some land for a price lesser than the market value.

The leaders of the Bar from Allahabad were called and the issue was discussed with them. The local lawyers who were in the know of things denied that there was any truth in the allegations and only thereafter Mr. Justice Bhalla's name was considered and the matter was now pending with the Government.

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