PF Scam: 10 Judges under CBI scanner

CBI submits report in PF scam
1 May 2009, 0914 hrs IST, Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN

NEW DELHI: As many as 10 high court and district judges, despite their clear denial of any role, in the Rs 23-crore PF scam would continue to remain under the CBI scanner, the investigating agency told the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Though it also gave the clean chit to a district judge, the agency in its status report said it had sent voluminous written documents for verification of handwriting concerning the 10 HC and district judges to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, and would like to await its report.

A three-judge Bench comprising Justices Arijit Pasayat, V S Sirpurkar and G S Singhvi, after perusing the status report, asked CBI to submit further report on the progress into the probe by the third week of August.

The CBI said though the concerned judges have denied their role in the illegal siphoning of huge amounts from the PF deposits of unsuspecting class III and IV employees in the Ghaziabad judiciary, it has some evidence to suggest that they had something to do with the scam that went undetected for a long time.

Appearing for CBI, Solicitor General G E Vahanvati told the Bench that the investigation has progressed considerably, but the agency has been stuck with the verification of voluminous written documents due to unavailability of handwriting experts at CFSL.

He said the CBI wants CFSL to scan 447 questionable writings, 1,125 admitted writings and 1,604 specific writings. But so far, it has got the CFSL report on only 40 writings, he said explaining the time being taken to proceed expeditiously with the probe.

During a debate on the issue whether the apex court should continue monitoring the probe, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan said the scam has cast a question mark over the credibility of judiciary and if the SC withdrew from it, it could impact on the public perception of the effort to bring the guilty to book.

Though the Bench asked CBI to furnish further progress report on the probe, it said as per the existing law laid down by the SC, even if the judges were found involved in the scam, they could be proceeded against only with the consent of the concerned Chief Justice.

The court also permitted the CBI to send its report giving a clean chit to District Judge Subhash Chander to the Allahabad High Court. Chander had made an emotional plea for a speedy conclusion of the probe against him saying it had cast a shadow of doubt on his 33 years of unblemished judicial track record and jeopardised his chance for elevation to the HC.