22 Nov 2002
TEHELKA TWIST: CJI DID IT BUT CONG
BLAMES GOVT FOR INFLUENCING PROBE
From Jal
Khambata
NEW DELHI: The Congress rocked Parliament with
yet another Tehelka bomb on Friday, accusing the Government of trying
to influence the Tehelka Inquiry Commission's findings by rewarding
its chairman Justice K Venkataswami with a plumed job.
The
entire Opposition even staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha but there
were red faces in the Congress by evening when the realisation dawned
that Venkataswami had landed in that job of the chairman of the
Authority for Advance Rulings for Customs and Central Excise on the
recommendation of then Chief Justice of India S P Bharucha.
Then
Union Law Minister and now BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley went on
record to point out that the Government had not selected Venkataswami
and it could do nothing except to accept the recommendation of the
single name by Justice Bharucha.
The Government had sought
recommendation of the then Chief Justice Dr A S Anand last year to
suggest a retired Supreme Court judge for the post while Justice
Bharucha who subsequently took over from him recommended
Venkataswami's name through a letter on January 14 this year.
All
correspondence between the Chief Justice of India and the Government
is always treated as secret and confidential and never made public
but the Government took the most unusual step of releasing Justice
Bharucha's letter No DO CJI/SCI/AAR/Nom/2002 to the Press in a bid to
set the controversy to rest. In this letter addressed to the Finance
Minister, then Chief Justice Bharucha wrote:
"Dear
Minister,
"Please refer to your D.O. letter No.
29/2/2001-Ad.I.C. dated September 27, 2002 addressed to my
predecessor requesting him to nominate a retired Judge of the Supreme
Court for appointment as the Chairperson of the Authority for Advance
Rulings for Customs and Central Excise.
"I nominate
Justice K Venkataswami, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court, for
appointment as chairperson of the Auhtority for Advance Rulings for
Customs and Central Excise.
"I have consulted Justice K
Venkataswami and he had agreed to such appointment. The terms of the
appointment and other details may be finalised in consultation with
him."
In his statement, Arun Jaitley asked the Congress
to apologise to Parliament and Justice Venkataswami for spreading
"falsehood" on the issue of his appointment. He said:
"Congress party owes an apology to Justice Venkataswami and to
Parliament for having stated false facts and causing embarrassment to
the judge."
Asserting that Congress was trying to "make
a mountain when not even a molehill exists", Jaitley said said
the centre had at no stage suggested or recommended Justice
Venkataswami's name and it had requested Chief Justice of India to
nominate a judge and the CJI nominated Venkataswami.
"For
Government to overrule the recommendation of the then CJI S P
Bharucha may have been inappropriate," Jaitley said, adding the
Government merely accepted the nomination proposed by then CJI.
The
Congress, however, tried to stick to its gun, stressing that if a
judge inquiring into the wrongs of the government is offered jobs,
what will happen to the credibility of his findings. Party spokesman
Satyavrat Chaturvedi said the government's action was a matter of
"impropriety."
In both the House of Parliament, the
Congress members asserted that integrity of Justice Venkataswami
probing the alleged corruption in defence deals had been compromised
six months ago by appointing him to a senior government post. Finance
Minister Jaswant, however, pointed out that it was the Chief Justice
of India who had cleared the appointment.
While Jaswant Singh
claimed in the Rajya Sabha that the appointment was cleared by CJI in
May, the letter released subsequently shows that the clearance had
come as early as in January. Sources said Justice Venkataswami was
appointed in June and is taking over the second assignment while
continuing with the Tehelka probe only next month.
The issue
was raised in the Rajya Sabha by Kapil Sibal of Congress while the
party's Chief Whip Priya Ranjan Das Munshi raised it in the Lok
Sabha. Dr Manmohan Singh, leader of Opposition, asserted that it was
shocking that "very authority which is investigating the
Government is sought to be given a job by the Government." In
the Lok Sabha, Congress, Communist and RJD members asserted that the
appointment was "highly prejudicial" to the Tehelka probe.
END