dushyant dave letter

8/12/2019 Dushyant Dave letter

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To Shri Honble Mr. Justice P. Sathasivam,

Honble the Chief Justice of India,

Dear Chief Justice,

I am addressing this letter in respect of an extremely disturbing matter which transpired in

the Supreme Court yesterday. Although it involves a judicial order, Im constrained to

address this communication in view of the enormity of the possible damage to the Institution

of the Supreme Court and the public interest.

The reason for addressing this communication is the serious disquiet that it has generated

amongst the Members of the Bar, which I became privy to while having coffee in theCanteen. My attention was drawn to the extraordinary developments which are unparalleled,

reflecting gross abuse of judicial power to cause damage to public running into an

unspecified amount.

Civil Appeal Nos. 9454-9455 of 2010, titled Mistry Construction P. Ltd. v. Makhija

Developers P. Ltd. & Ors., were shown at Sl. No. 79 before Court No. 4, presided by [a 3-

judge bench] in the Weekly List No. 7 of 2014 from 18th

February to 20th

February, 2014.

Petition for Special Leave to Appeal (Crl.) No. 7232/2013, titled Neera Saggi and Anr. v.

Avinash Parshuram Naik and Anr. was before the Bench presided by the Honble [.......] whohad issued notice on 05.09.2013. When the aforesaid matter came up for further hearing on

20.01.2014 the Court passed following order:

list the following matter along with Civil Appeal No. 9454-3455 of 2013 on

29.01.2014

I was told by Mr. Pratap Venugopal, and Mr. Anirudh P. Mayee. The Ld. Advocates

appearing for the parties that none of the parties had mentioned about the Civil Appeal Nos.

9454-9455 of 2010, much less as having a bearing on the SLP (Crl). 7232/2013. They

however informed me that, the Honble Presiding Judge on his own stated that according tohim there was a similar matter pending and accordingly the Order was made.

Clearly the order had recorded incorrect Appeal Numbers, and therefore when the matter

came up on 29.01.2014, the SLP (Crl.) 7232/2014 was not taken up for hearing and was

adjourned.

It appears that on 20.02.2014 the SLP (Crl.) 7232/2013 was taken up suo moto not being

on Board, and the Court passed the following order:

By order dated 20.01.2014, this Petition was directed to be listed on

29.01.2014 along with Civil Appeal No. 9454-9455/2013.


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Due to inadvertent mistake, the year of the Civil Appeal No. 9454-9455 was

shown as 2013 instead of 2010.

Resulting thereof, these Civil Appeals could not be listed along with this

Petition on 29.01.2014.

List this Petition along with Civil Appeal No. 9454-9455 of 2010 on

25.02.2014 at the top of the Board subject to overnight part-heard

The matters were listed yesterday, and the Bench presided by the [..] at the outset

itself accepted the submission of Shri C.U. Singh, Senior Advocate, that the Civil Appeal No,

9454-9455 of 2010 was not connected with the SLP (Crl.) 7232/2013 and passed an

independent order in the SLP (Crl.) 7232/2013. However it appears that despite there being

no connection, the Civil Appeal No. 9454-9455 of 2010 was taken up, and in the absence of

any effective representation from CIDCO, a statutory body, the Civil Appeal disposed off by

an order dictated in open Court, in presence of many lawyers sitting in the Court, and as

informed to me, the Court allowed the Writ Petitioner before the High Court to withdraw the

Writ Petition apparently in view of the settlement between Mistry Constructions P. Ltd. and

Makhija Developers. P. Ltd. which was earlier rejected by Court on 25.04.2013. Result of

this that the judgment of the High Court is wished away without Debate and with the same

perish the High Courts damning findings and directions for a re-tender. So Mistry gets the

tender and 35 Hectares of prime land for a song. [A copy of the order dated 25.02.2014 has

not been uploaded on the internet and it is difficult to state the exact text of the Order]

Later Mr. C.U. Singh informed me of the above by a text message

My Dear Dushyant,

This is to confirm that when Item 2 [] was called out

today, I pointed out to the court that the Civil Appeal which was tagged

with the Criminal Appeal in which I was appearing had no connection

at all with my matter.

The Ld. Presiding Judge, [] immediately said that they too had

seen it was unconnected and that the only thing common was that

CIDCO was a party. He asked me to proceed with my matter which Iargued and succeeded in. I assumed the matter stood de-tagged and left

the Court. Im not aware of what happened thereafter, but if the hearing

of the Civil Appeal proceeded, even though it was found to be wrongly

tagged, then its a matter of disquiet. I will be happy to place these facts

in a formal letter

Warm Regards,

Chander


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Pertinently, in the year 2013 a similar attempt to dispose of the Civil Appeal in a cavalier

fashion was made 25.04.2013 when a Bench comprising of Three Honble Judges held:

On mentioning, let this matter be taken on Board.

Since the Parties are interested to settle this matter and they have filed terms ofsettlement, let this matter be listed For Orders next Thursday (02.05.2013),

fairly at the top of the list

Subsequently however on 02.05.2013 the Bench declined to accept the compromise, and

held as follows:

I.A. No. 5-6 have been filed on behalf of the Appellant and the Respondent

No. 1 M/s Makhija Developers Private Ltd., for disposal of the Appeals in

terms of the Compromise recorded between the said parties.

Having regard to the fact that the present appeals are pending against

certain findings of the High Court, we are not inclined to accept the

settlement or the compromise arrived at between the Appellant and

Respondent No. 1 and the applications are, therefore, dismissed.

Let the appeals themselves be listed for hearing at an early date, if possible,

within three months from the date the appeals are ready for hearing

That matter raises following serious questions which need to enquired into in depth.

1. How did the Bench presided over [] become aware of the Civil Appeal whenthat matter had never crossed its path?

2. Who Could have informed the said bench about the Civil Appeals?3. Can on Bench order tagging of a matter pending before another Bench without being

requested by any of the Counsels of the Parties or without going into the subject

matter of the two matters to establish some indentity?

4. Even assuming that [.] was inclined that Civil Appeal 9454-9455 of shouldhave been tagged with2010SLP (Crl.) 7232/2013, should not have the SLP (Crl.)

7232/2013 been tagged with the pending Civil Appeal 9454-9455 of 2010?

5. Could the Bench presided by [.] passed a suo moto order and withoutCounsels presence on 20.02.2014?

6. Whether the Registry could have at all tagged a Civil Appeal listed for hearing beforeHonble Mr. Justice B.S. Chauhan without an order from that Bench?

7. Whether the Registry has complied with the order passed by [] afterobtaining approval from Honble The Chief Justice of India in terms The Supreme

Court of India-A Handbook of Practice and Procedure and the procedures prescribed

therein?

8. Whether the Bench presided over by [.] upon being pointed out on25.02.2014 by Mr. C.U. Singh, Ld. Senior Advocate that the two matters were not

connected in any manner and having accepted the submission, ought not to have sent

back the Civil Appeals to the Bench before they were listed?


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9. Why was the [..] so keen to hear the Civil Appeals in such an unnaturalmanner and in violation of judicial propriety and decorum?

10.Should the Bench of [.] not have awaited the appearance by CIDCO, astatutory authority, especially when the matter involved land worth several hundred

crores and strong judgment of the Bombay High Court?11.Is the judgment and order pronounced on 25.02.2014 not illegal, coram non judice

and violative of basic principles of exercise of judicial power and liable to recalled

forthwith?

12.Should the Supreme Court not put in place fool proof Rules to ensure that the judicialabuse witnessed in allcocation, especially on mentioning to avoid forum shopping in

interest of justice?

13.Should the Registry not be held accountable?I must confess that there is a continuous and strong feeling amongst young members of the

Bar that these kind of machinations are hurting their future and they are getting increasinglydespondent. I feel that the institution owes a lot to them.

The events reflect a disturbing trend witnessed in the Supreme Court over the last couple of

years, and has seriously shaken the faith in the Institution in some of us who respect and love

the Institution immensely.

This a matter which clearly demands a suo moto exercise of the curative power by the

Supreme Court to remedy gross abuse of the process of the court and I would request you

as the Chief Justice of India to act forthwith to restore the dignity of the Court and to prevent

some of us from losing faith in the Institution completely.

Im taking the liberty of circulating this letter to other Honble Judges of this Court to

appraise them of the matter.

Sincerely,

Dushyant Dave,

Senior Advocate

dushyant dave letter

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