Marksheet case: Lawyer representing doctor, son apologises

The lawyer representing a doctor and his son in a forged marksheet case has apologised to Madras High Court judge S Reghupathy, whose charge that a Union minister had tried to influence him in the case sparked off a nationwide concern about interference in judiciary.
 
The remarks by an upset Justice Reghupathy followed a complaint from R K Chandramohan, counsel for the father-son duo, that the judge was not granting anticipatory bail on the basis of prosecution submissions.
 
Upset over Chandramohan's remarks, Reghupathy had said that the minister had talked to him and asked the lawyer to tender an unconditional apology, failing which he said he would incorporate every detail in his order.
 
Yesterday, the judge requested Chief Justice H L Gokhale to post the petitions of the two accused before another judge.
 
The CBI had filed the case against S Kirub Shridhar, a third year student in a private medical college at Puducherry and his doctor father Krishnamoorthy for allegedly using the services of a Puducherry University official and a middleman to inflate the marks of Shridhar.
 
The issue also figured in the Tamil Nadu Assembly
today with State Law Minister Duraimurugan saying action could
be taken against the minister if the judge named him.