Former Orissa High Court judge IM Quddusi has moved a Delhi Court against leak of phone records between him and other accused in the Lucknow Medical College Bribery Scam.
The Delhi court has issued notice to the CBI and sought a reply till January 22 in the matter of transcripts of phone conversations involving the three accused- Former Orissa High Court Judge IM Qudussi, middleman Vishwanath Agarwal and BP Yadav of the Prasad Education Trust.
The transcript was released by an NGO The Convenor of Campaign for Judical Accountability and Reforms (CJAR). Quddusi sought a probe into the leak to know whether it was the CBI that leaked the telephonic conversation.
The Medical College Scam
A medical college run by Prasad Education Trust allegedly collaborated with former Orissa High Court judge IM Quddusi who used his influence to 'settle' a matter involving their plea to set up medical colleges pending in the Supreme Court.
The Trust owned one of the 46 medical colleges barred by the central government from admitting students. The accused were subsequently granted bail, but the same was not challenged by CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested retired Orissa High Court judge I.M. Quddusi and four others on charges of conspiring to reverse a government order barring the medical college from admitting students because of substandard facilities and non-fulfillment of required criteria.
The others arrested in the case were B P Yadav and Palash Yadav of the Prasad Educational Trust which runs a medical college in Lucknow, Biswanath Agrawala, a middleman, and hawala operator Ramdev Saraswat, the CBI sources said.
The Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms (CJAR), a non-governmental organisation represented by Bhushan, had moved a petition seeking an independent court-monitored probe into the alleged scam. They had recently also released recorded conversation of the accused.
The petition also alleged that FIR by the CBI says that money was collected in the name of judges to get a favourable order in the matter which was heard by a bench of CJI, hence the CJI should recuse himself and not hear the petition.
Quddusi and a few others were arrested in the case by the CBI and later granted bail by a court.
Bhushan alleged in a Press Conference on Tuesday that from the recorded conversation of the accused, including Qudussi, it was clear that there was a serious conspiracy of bribe in scam case.
However, he clarified that he was not alleging that the CJI was involved in the conspiracy and said that a thorough investigation was required in it.
Dismissing their plea in November last year, the CJI's bench had said the Chief Justice was "the master of roster" and had the prerogative to allocate matters before any bench.
The bench also said that there cannot be any probe and no FIR can be lodged against sitting judges without the competent authority, in this case, the CJI's approval.
Dismissing the petition, the three-judge bench comprising Justice R.K. Agarwal, Justice A.K. Mishra and Justice A M Khanwilkar also termed the petitions 'contempt' and an attempt at 'forum shopping'.
'Forum shopping' is a practice adopted by litigants to get their cases heard by a particular court for a favorable judgement.