Ex-judge’s WhatsApp chat: SC reserves orders

The Supreme Court on Monday reserved orders on a plea filed by former Andhra Pradesh High Court decide Justice V. Eswaraiah in opposition to a State High Court decision to launch an inquiry into his WhatsApp telephone chat with a suspended judicial officer.

The High Court, on August 13, ordered a judicial inquiry by former Supreme Court decide Justice R.V. Raveendran into the telephone chat. It termed the dialog an try to “malign” a senior sitting Supreme Court decide and the then Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

On Monday, Justice Eswaraiah, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, argued that the telephone chat was a “private conversation”.

‘No crime committed’

“No crime has been committed… I have filed the complete transcript of the entire conversation in an affidavit,” Mr. Bhushan contended.

However, a Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and R. Subhash Reddy stated the apex courtroom can’t be anticipated to inquire into the info of the case.

Justice Bhushan stated the case should be left to the High Court to proceed with if Justice Eswaraiah “substantially admits to the conversation”.

“We can’t hold an inquiry… If he [Eswaraiah] substantially admits to the conversation, then let the High Court proceed,” Justice Bhushan prompt to Mr. Prashant Bhushan orally, earlier than reserving the case for orders.

Mr. Prashant Bhushan stated his shopper by no means recorded the dialog. “The conversation was on WhatsApp without a recording option. The recording would have been done by the suspended judicial officer at the other end using an external device… It was a private talk. Baseless allegations have been made by the High Court without hearing me, without issuing prior notice to me,” he argued.

Senior advocate Harish Salve and advocate Vipin Nair, for intervenor-advocate Samuel John, stated the High Court had merely given causes whereas ordering an inquiry into the telephone chat.

‘Several parts of talk scandalous’

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, for a respondent, stated a number of components of the dialog that had been “scandalous” have been “missed out” within the transcript.

“What is missed out is scandalous. I will file a chart on what is there [in the transcript] and what has been missed out… The affidavit filed has a lot of ‘ifs’ and buts’,” he submitted.

Mr. Bhushan stated then the High Court-ordered inquiry ought to look into the “whole thing”, which embody the topic of the alleged dialog.

“Then hold an inquiry into the whole thing, including land transactions involving the family members of a sitting Supreme Court judge… Why should inquiry be held only on the phone conversation?” he acknowledged.

Justice Eswaraiah, who’s the Chairman of the Andhra Pradesh State Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission, stated the allegations of “conspiracy” and a “plot” in opposition to the judiciary derived from the contents of the dialog had been principally “white lies”, derogatory and defamatory to him.