By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Thursday ordered a private television news channel and its reporter to tender an “unconditional apology” for carrying out a sting operation purportedly aimed at exposing corruption in the judiciary.
A bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal sought the apology, rejecting an affidavit filed by Zee TV and its reporter Vijay Shekhar explaining that their intention was to expose corruption in the lower judiciary and they never intended to hurt the image of the judiciary.
Though the affidavit filed by the news channel and its reporter said they be forgiven in case they have unwittingly hurt the image of the judiciary, the bench was not satisfied and ordered them to tender an “unconditional apology”.
The bench was of the view that the sting operation carried out by the news channel in 2004 was nothing less than a calculated bid to lower the mage of the judiciary and scandalise it in no uncertain terms.
The bench adjourned the matter for four weeks.
The apex court had on July 26 strongly disapproved the sting operation and had asked the news channel to file an affidavit, substantiating its claim of genuine intentions to deserve pardon by the court.
In 2004, the scribe had got bailable arrest warrants issued against then president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, then chief justice V.N. Khare and apex court judge B.P Singh from an Ahmedabad court by paying Rs.40,000 to three lawyers there.
But before airing the news report on the sting operation, the journalist had moved the apex court seeking its permission for the same.
The apex court in turn had ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the matter.
During the probe, the investigative agency found that the magistrate was not at fault in issuing the warrants as the scribe had not named the constitutional authorities in a proper and transparent manner and had obfuscated their identities.
The reporter had also got the warrants issued on false and fictitious complaints, with the magistrate passing the order to issue the warrants in a routine manner after verification of the complaints by his staffers.
“The whole perception of this gentleman (the journalist) is absolutely wrong. It is not happening,” the chief justice had observed earlier, adding that he never came across any such case before.