Noticing that certain documents were “inserted” into the records of two writ petitions, which were in the court’s custody, the High Court of Karnataka has directed its Registrar (Judicial) to hold an inquiry to find out how they were allowed to be tampered with, and identify the staff and officers responsible for this.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R. Devdas passed the order while observing that prima facie it appears to be a case of “tampering with the court records where the documents bearing the date much later than the date of filing the petitions are not only found inserted into the records but found mentioned in the body of the petitions.”
The petitions were filed by two stone crushing units from Haveri district questioning orders of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to stop the units for alleged violation of conditions.
When counsel for the petitioners was confronted with the alteration of records, he admitted before the Bench that “he has not taken prior permission of the court before making such changes in the court records. However, he submitted that the changes were made in the petition when the office had raised objections and the petitioners were called upon to comply with the office objections.” The counsel also claimed that “there was no malafide intentions on the part of the petitioners or himself.”
However, the Bench was not fully satisfied with counsel’s explanation and wondered how the documents of a date later than the date of filing of the petition could be inserted into the court record, though the petitioners never sought permission to amend the petitions.
“...the petitions, when filed and when become court records, a sanctity is attached to the same. There is no gainsaying the requirement of proper preservation and maintenance of the Court records. The manner in which the records of these petitions have been altered, raise questions on the functioning of the concerned branches, particularly, the Scrutiny Branch and the Pending Branch,” the Bench observed while asking the Registrar (Judicial) to submit an inquiry report by October 9.
The Bench, while dismissing the petitions, imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh each on the petitioners for “not coming to the court with clean hands and being prima facie responsible for tampering with the court record.”