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Scam unearthed in Patna high court

A major scam, probably the first of its kind in the annals of the Indian judiciary, involving forging of court documents by advocates and officials has been unearthed in the Patna high court.

Under normal procedure, in the high court, a single-judge order can be appealed to a two-judge bench. But to appeal against the judgment of a two-judge bench, one has to approach the Supreme Court.

In the Patna high court, lawyers fudged two-judge bench orders to make them appear as if a single-judge bench had given the verdicts. They then appealed to a two-judge bench in the same court.

This practice was being done in connivance of the lawyers and court staff.

The racket came to light when a division bench, comprising Chief Justice Ravi Dhawan and Justice R N Prasad, while hearing a case on August 8, was faced with an objection by the government counsel.

The matter was being taken up for hearing for a second time, the counsel pleaded, adding a division bench comprising Justice Nagendra Rai and Justice R S Garg had already dismissed it.

The judges immediately ordered Registrar General Sachinandan Mukherjee to probe the issue and inquire if such irregularities had occurred.

The registrar general found that the case was mis-presented before the two-judge bench. It was revealed that the appeal was filed after deleting the name of Justice Garg from the original order.

Further investigations uncovered 69 more cases, mostly relating to bail petitions, Mukherjee said.

After Mukherjee submitted his report, Chief Justice Dhawan and Justice Prasad on October 22 directed him to file a criminal complaint against the lawyers and court officials involved in the racket within three weeks.

Sources in the registrar general's office said the probe was on and more cases might be unearthed.

Meanwhile, lawyers criticised these corrupt practices. Convenor of the co-ordination committee of three associations of lawyers of the high court, Yogesh Chandra Verma, said, "This act of our colleagues is indefensible."

He, however, charged the high court administration of having taken a long time to uncover these malpractices.

"We had intimated the court about such acts taking place... Strangely, the court administration has taken such a long time to sit up and take notice."

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