Tearful judge abandons Mulayam case

NEW DELHI: An apparently slanderous fax message caused Justice AR Lakshmanan of the Supreme Court – hearing a petition filed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav’s son Akhilesh – to break down and terminate proceedings.

Justice Lakshmanan, who is due to retire next week, stunned the court on Friday when he wept and refused to hear the case, saying he had received an anonymous letter with ‘heinous’ contents.

“In the seventeen-and-a-half years of my judicial career, I have never gone through such a thing,” Justice Lakshmanan said. “I am very much pained. The contents of the letter are so heinous that my wife and I are very disturbed.” Senior lawyers present in the court, including Soli Sorabjee and Ashok Desai, appeared shocked.

According to sources, the judge received a one-page fax in the morning when he was about to leave for court. The message, which did not bear the sender’s phone number, suggested that Justice Lakshmanan had been influenced to favour Yadav in the review petition.

Justice Altamas Kabir, who was with Justice Lakshmanan on the bench, said it was sad that such an incident had occurred just days before the latter’s retirement.

Sorabjee, who tried to pacify the upset judge, said, “Justice Lakshmanan should go smiling from the court.” It is not known if other judges also received a copy of the fax.

Akhilesh’s lawyer, Mukul Rohatgi, had sought an open-court hearing of the review petition challenging the March 1 order that directed the CBI to probe the excess-assets allegations against the Yadav family. Rohatgi pleaded that the judge concerned must proceed with the hearing instead of referring it to the Chief Justice of India. Justice Lakshmanan, however, asked the counsel to seek instructions from the CJI.

Later, Rohatgi brought the matter before the CJI, who fixed March 23 for hearing the petition. Justice Lakshmanan retires on March 22. Justice Kabir will be on the bench.