“Is the media scared to investigate CJI Dattu?”, Justice Markandey Katju

Former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju is no stranger to controversy. This time around Chief Justice of India HL Dattu and his allegedly disproportionate assets has appeared in Justice Katju’s blog post as a reply to a journalist from Economic Times..The blog post, which goes by today’s date, has two emails – one a request from a journalist from The Economic Times for details of complaint against Justice Dattu with documentary proof of the same and the other, Justice Katju’s reply to the said mail..The mail from Economic Times, which is dated May 12, 2015, reads as follows:.“1-The Economic Times is working on a story on Chief Justice of India HL Dattu. I have been given to understand that a complaint regarding assets of Justice Dattu and his wife was forwarded to you. May I request you to share details of follow up action, if any, and your views on the said complaint.2-The complaint was signed by Pt Narendra Sharma, he had attached all the relevant documents, and in August 2014, forwarded it to you for necessary action.I shall be extremely grateful, if you could forward your comments, on the above mentioned issues, at the earliest.”.In his reply to the said mail, Justice Katju has accepted that he did receive “a dossier from someone containing documentary proof of a large amount of properties amassed by Justice Dattu during his judicial career. This was before he became CJI.” He also states that he had given copies of the dossier to Senior Advocate Shanti Bhushan and journalists from The Times of India, Indian Express, The Hindu and to the then Union Law Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad..With regard to the details of the alleged disproportionate assets amassed by the CJI, he says the following:.“I do not have a copy of the dossier with me at present, but I have it with me in my flat in Noida, which I can give you on my return. However, my recollection of the contents of the dossier, which I had read carefully, is as follows:There are a large number of plots in or near Bangalore purchased in the name of Justice Dattu’s wife Gayathri. Photocopies of the sale deeds by which they were purchased are in the dossier. These sale deeds mention the name of Justice Dattu’s wife Gayathri, but interestingly enough describe her as daughter of Guravayoor (probably her father’s name), and not wife of Justice Dattu. This is strange, since the plots were purchased long after her marriage. Was this done to conceal these transactions?Most of these plots were purchased in violation of the provisions of the Karnatak Land Reforms Act, which state that a person having family income of over Rs. 2 lacs per year cannot buy land in the rural areas of Karnataka. At the time of purchase these plots were all technically in the rural area, though in reality they had become part of Bangalore as the city (like all cities in India) had expanded. Justice Dattu’s income at the time of purchase was over Rs. 15 lacs per year (the approximate salary of High Court Judges), and so his wife illegally purchased these plots.3. Justice Dattu has built a palatial house in Bangalore, allegedly on 1200 sq.m. land Possibly that house itself would be worth Rs 50 crore or more. Someone sent me photos of that house by email, and I will try to retrieve them and send them to you.One plot of land in Bangalore was allotted to Justice Dattu, though it could not have been allotted to him because under the relevant scheme such plots could only be allotted to an employee of the Karnataka High Court. A High Court Judge is not an employee (he holds a Constitutional post, and is no one’s employee). Justice Dattu was a Karnataka High Court Judge at that time.One plot of land in Bangalore was allotted to Justice Dattu under a scheme which had a term that a person already having a plot of land in Bangalore could not be allotted a plot. Justice Dattu already had plots in Bangalore, either in his own name or in his wife or children’s name at that time.Several other illegalities allegedly committed by Dattu (which I do not remember at present) were mentioned in the dossier, which consisted of about 100 pages, many being photocopies of sale deeds and other documents.”.He then goes on to clarify that he has no personal grudge against Justice Dattu and he only wanted an enquiry into the allegations in the dossier and was not asserting that the allegations are necessarily correct..He then alleges that neither Shanti Bhushan nor his son Prashant Bhushan or the media investigated the matter..The blog post ends with a question as to whether the media is scared to investigate CJI Dattu?.You can read the full blog post here..Image Courtesy: Website of Supreme Court of India