Black money: Larger SC bench to hear government's plea as judges split

A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has deferred on whether the Union government’s plea to review the July 4 judgment setting up a special investigating team comprising two former judges among others to probe the black money scam.

While justice Altamas Kabir has said the government’s plea is ‘maintainable’, justice SS Nijjar, who was a signatory to the main ruling, says it can’t be accepted.

Thus the Union government’s plea to review the verdict by Justice B Sudershan Reddy, since retired, and Justice Nijjar, would be placed along with the fractured order before the CJI to set up a larger bench to decide whether the verdict could be reviewed. In its dissenting verdict, justice Kabir said “rectification of an order stems from the fundamental principles that justice is above all’’.

Justifying his decision to accept the Union government’s plea to review the disputed judgment, he said the exercise to revisit an order is “to remove the error and not for disturbing finality’’.

If the July 4 judgment could say that the court enjoys all the powers to pass orders which may be “necessary for the interest of justice or to prevent the abuse of process of Court’’, that very power doesn’t “precluded’’ it from recalling or reviewing its own order.

Recall order could be made only if the court “satisfied that it is necessary to do so for the sake of justice’’.

Justice Kabir said “justice transcends all barriers. Neither rules of procedure nor technicalities can stand in its way, particularly if its implementation would result in injustice’’.

The government had contended that the verdict was an ‘overreach’ by the top court and had told the Kabir-Nijjar bench that the ruling undermined the Centre set up high-level committee to track black money stashed away abroad besides risking the security set up.