2 held for fudging Supreme Court order in Anil Ambani contempt case

Two Supreme Court officials — court master Manav Sharma and assistant registrar Tapan Kumar Chakraborty — have been arrested for allegedly forging and uploading a court order related to industrialist Anil Ambani on the court website.

The order stated that Ambani's presence in a contempt case had been dispensed with, instead of stating that it had not been dispensed with. The duo was arrested by the crime branch after SC Registrar had an FIR registered against them.

According to the police, Sharma and Chakraborty had earlier been sacked by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi after a plaint that they had tampered with the court order.

"An FIR was registered following the complaint from the court's administration department. During investigation, evidence was found against them. The duo, who first tried to mislead the initial investigation, later confessed to the crime," said a senior police officer.

Police said that the order had stated that "the personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with," but the word 'not' was missing from teh uploaded order.

The discrepancy was brought to the notice of the bench on January 10 by senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was appearing for Swedish telecom firm Ericsson.

A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman has been hearing three contempt pleas filed by Ericsson against Ambani and others for not clearing dues.

‘Not’ Bad 

• CJI had sacked the duo for tampering with an SC order seeking ‘personal presence’ of RCom chairman Anil Ambani in a contempt matter 
• While uploading Jan 7 order, duo omitted the word ‘not’  from the line ‘personal appearance of alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with’