- (1.) By means of the present writ petition (public interest litigation) (PIL), the petitioner, Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms, through its Secretary, has approached this Court seeking a writ of mandamus or any other writ or direction of similar nature to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by a retired Chief Justice of India to investigate in the matter of alleged conspiracy and payment of bribes for procuring favourable order in a matter pending before this Court and take consequential actions thereafter along with a direction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hand over all the materials/evidence collected so far in the FIR bearing No. RC10(A)/2017-AC.III, New Delhi to the SIT to be constituted by this Court.
(2.) We have heard Shri Prashant Bhushan, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. K.K. Venugopal, learned Attorney General appearing for the Union of India.
(3.) Shri Prashant Bhushan, referring to the FIR dated 19.09.2017 filed by the CBI, New Delhi submitted that in the FIR names of various persons have been mentioned as suspected accused along with other unknown public servants and private persons. According to him, the aforesaid FIR has been lodged regarding some criminal conspiracy for getting a matter pending before this Court settled. He thus submitted that one does not know how many public and private persons are involved in it and the matter relates to huge gratification for inducing public servants in a matter pending before this Court. He, however, emphasized that the purpose of filing this petition is not to name any Judge of this Court but to protect the independence of the judiciary and in order to arrive at an impartial investigation, this Court may appoint a SIT headed by a retired Chief Justice of India.;