Senior criminal lawyer Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the prime accused Suresh Kalmadi, joined the chorus with another defence counsel Ramesh Gupta by doubting CBI Judge Talwant Singh’s fitness to conduct a free and fair trial into the case. Earlier, Lalit Bhanot’s counsel Ramesh Gupta had alleged the judge of creating a hostile atmosphere in the courtroom.
Luthra, throughout his nearly 45 minute-long argument before the district judge, raised questions on the manner in which the Special CBI judge has been conducting the case. In a lighter vein, he questioned the ‘discipline’ of the judge inside the courtroom and also accused him of ignoring the judicial decorum. Luthra said, “The concern is not with a judicial officer. The concern is even when the learned judge is not holding the court, the accused are being called daily and some of the accused are not in custody any more. The atmosphere in the court has reached such a level that you will have to find a middle path.”
Senior advocate Gupta chipped in and added, “There is no condition in CrPc that accused will have to appear daily in the scrutiny of documents stage. Even when he was on leave, he asked the accused to come. I have never heard a sessions court doing it. The atmosphere should be fair to both the parties.”
The senior lawyers also pointed out to the district judge that judge Singh has written a letter to the Delhi High Court that the case be heard by him on a daily basis.
While making the submissions, Luthra also referred to Ram Avatar Jaggi murder case where Jaggi’s son had sought transfer of this case to another judge. Luthra said, “We are told that he wrote to HC saying he wants to focus on the CWG case like a special CBI judge exclusively tries the 2G scam case, he wants to conduct this case on a daily basis.
I am not saying he is biased or prejudiced, but every accused looks for a level playing field. The concern is whether he will be able to balance the rights of both the parties. Without casting any disrespect to the judge, the matter should go to a judge where there are no apprehensions. Let there be no doubts cast on the special judge’s reputation and pass appropriate orders.”
DJ Gupta, however, said that she has no information of any such communication from the special judge to the High Court.
The lawyer cited instances where the special judge refused to take up the matters on the time fixed by him in consultation with the lawyers. This caused unnecessary hassles to the lawyers, Luthra added, as he also cited the particular dates on which such instances took place.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
