Advocate Prashant Bhushan has moved an application in Supreme Court seeking SIT or CBI probe into the alleged disproportionate assets amassed by former Chief Justice of India, Justice KG Balakrishnan..The application was moved seeking amendment of the earlier prayer, which had sought Justice Balakrishnan’s removal from the post of Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). Since his term at the helm of the NHRC expired, the said prayer was rendered infructuous..The matter was heard by a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R Banumathi yesterday..Interestingly, Bhushan also placed before the Court a chart containing details of the income tax assessment of relatives of Balakrishnan J..He submitted that the chart made “shocking” revelations since the income computed by the Income Tax Department revealed income in excess of what the judge’s relatives had declared..The Court has now allowed the Centre to respond to Bhushan’s application. The matter will now be heard after six weeks..Common Cause had moved the Supreme Court in 2013 alleging amassment of disproportionate assets by Justice Balakrishnan. The Court had admitted the matter on the 28th of August the same year. The matter then remained in cold storage for a very long time. By the time it was taken up, Justice Balakrishnan had retired from NHRC rendering the main prayer infructuous..Subsequently, when the matter came up for hearing in November 2015, the Central government had tried to shoot down the case saying that there cannot be CBI investigation in such cases as it would encourage “wild allegations”..Read the chart setting out income tax assessment details below. .Image taken from here.
