Former CJI was Adamant on Elevating Corrupt Judge: Katju

NEW DELHI: Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju Monday again complained of interferences in the appointment of judges, saying former chief justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan tried his best to elevate a judge to the apex court despite allegations of corruption against him.

Katju said in his blog post that he told Justice Kapadia that the said judge had a “very bad reputation about his integrity”.

“I told Justice Kapadia that a chief justice of a high court, who had earlier been a judge of the Madras High Court, had a very bad reputation about his integrity,” Katju wrote in his blog.

“I knew this because I had been the chief justice in Madras High Court,” Katju said.

He said although Kapadia thanked him for the information, the Collegium of the Supreme Court, of which Kapadia was a member, recommended the judge’s name to then CJI Balakrishnan.

Katju alleged that Balakrishnan was adamant that the judge should become a Supreme Court judge.

“Kapadia said that he remembered that I had warned him a year earlier, but Balakrishnan, the then CJI, was adamant on elevating this corrupt judge, saying that he (Balakrishnan) was earlier a chief justice of Madras High Court and knew that the allegations of corruption about him were untrue,” Katju said.