The Supreme Court today said attempts to influence witnesses in ongoing cases struck at the very roots of a strong judicial system in the country.
The Supreme Court today said attempts to influence witnesses in ongoing cases struck at the very roots of a strong judicial system in the country.
"There has been subversion of the judicial process. What you have pointed out is individual cases. But your action strikes at the very root of the judicial system," the apex court told former senior counsel RK Anand convicted in the BMW accident sting operation case.
A three-judge bench of Justices GS Singhvi, Aftab Alam and CK Prasad made the remarks after Anand's counsel MR Calla pleaded that Anand has already been debarred for four months from practising and stripped of his seniority.
He pleaded the matter should be set at rest as Anand has not been appearing in courts for the last nearly one and half years.
The counsel said Anand cannot be penalised further by way of any enhancement of punishment as even those advocates, who had accused judges of the Supreme Court and Delhi High Court, had been let off after extracting their apology.
However, the argument failed to convince the bench which said Anand's case was different as he had sought to subvert the judicial process as a defence lawyer by attempting to purchase prosecution's key witness Sunil Kulkarni.
"Did it at any time occur to you that you had done a crime. Tell us one instance by way of gesture, remorse or behaviour that you felt anguished at your behaviour," the bench said.
The counsel remarked that Anand had admitted his mistake and already tendered an apology.
"If you were sincere, the apology should have come on the first day. Further, you say that the acts had been imputed to you and done by you, " the bench said. The arguments would resume after two weeks.
The apex court had on July 29, 2009, upheld Anand's conviction and stripped him of the status of senior advocate for contempt of court for attempting to influence the course of justice in the hit-and-run case and asked why the quantum of punishment for Anand, who was the defence lawyer in the BMW case, should not be enhanced.
The Delhi High Court had held Anand guilty along with another senior advocate IU Khan for obstructing administration of justice and, as a punishment, debarred them from appearing in courts for four months.
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