Kalikho Pul’s wife seeks information on her letter

New Delhi: Dangwimsai Pul, wife of late Arunachal Pradesh CM Kalikho Pul, has again written to the Supreme Court seeking details of an administrative order, if any, passed by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar for placing her letter before a bench of Justices A.K. Goel and Uday Lalit.

In her earlier letter, she had sought an FIR into the death of her husband, alluding to foul play. She wrote the second letter to the secretary general on February 28 after she withdrew her petition bas-ed on her husband’s 60-page suicide note, which was listed for hearing before a bench of Justices Goel and Lalit on February 23. 

The letter sent to the CJI on February 17 was converted into a writ petition. Now, she has sought to know whether a decision was taken by the CJI on the administrative side (to list the letter for hearing), and if so, to give her a copy of the decision. Otherwise, she sought file notings showing the reason for inaction.

In the letter, she said she wanted to know whether the CJI’s attention was drawn to a judgement of Constitution Bench in the K. Veeraswami’s case (relating to grant of permission for prosecution).

In the Veeraswami case, a Constitution Bench held that while judges were “public servant” for the purposes of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1986, criminal proceedings against a high court or Supreme Court judge could only be initiated in “consultation” with the CJI.

Dangwimsai Pul in her letter asked whether the court registry had requested the CJI to place the letter before an “appropriate judge” — which would mean Justice J. Chelameswar, being the senior-most judge available for action on the letter.

On February 23, senior counsel Dushyant Dave, appearing for Dangwimsai Pul, sought permission to withdraw the petition, and accordingly a Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit dismissed it as withdrawn. 

As the matter assumes great significance for the integrity of the court, she wanted the secretary general to give details after consulting the senior-most judge without placing her letter before the CJI and Justice Dipak Mishra.

“I do hope and trust that at least now the matter will receive absolutely objective, independent and judicial treatment from this great institution,” she said in her letter.

On February 28, Dangwimsai Pul along with some senior lawyers gave a petition to Vice-President Hamid Ansari seeking his intervention for registering an FIR against the CJI and Justice Dipak Misra, and to probe allegations levelled by her husband who committed suicide in August 2016.

“If these allegations are not credibly investigated, a serious cloud of suspicion will continue to remain over the politicians and judges whose names are mentioned in the suicide note,” she said.

“This would be most unfortunate for our democracy as well as for the judiciary. A credible investigation in this matter can only be done by an SIT (special investigation team) constituted by three or five judges next in seniority to the judges named in the note,” Dangwimsai Pul said.