Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi has issued an advisory to chief justices and other judges of all high courts not to entertain any calls in his name or that of his office.
What made the CJI issue such an unusual directive were a couple of calls that were made to Chief Justices of two high courts in which a man impersonated the voice of the CJI and tried to recommend the name of some advocate for elevation of judges of the high courts.
The impersonator allegedly imitated the CJI’s voice and spoke to Telangana High Court Chief Justice B Radhakrishnan and L Narayana Swamy, the acting chief justice of the Karnataka High Court, and asked them to recommend names of certain advocates for elevation as judges of the high courts. The CJI learnt of this mischief during routine conversations between him and the two high court judges, and immediately ordered an internal inquiry into the incident. The impersonator is yet to be identified but a preliminary probe has revealed that the calls to the two judges originated from the Supreme Court’s electronic private branch exchange (EPBX) system but had actually been made from a mobile phone. Meanwhile, a criminal complaint has also been lodged regarding this incident at the Tilak Marg police station.
—India Legal Bureau
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