Investigate Justice Sabharwal

To: The Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh

To: The Chief Justice of India, Mr. Justice K. G. Balakrishnan

The past few months have seen a remarkable accumulation of evidence that former Chief Justice Y. K. Sabharwal is guilty of serious offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act. First aired by the newspaper Mid-day and then vetted by the Campaign for Judicial Accountability, the evidence strongly suggests that Justice Sabharwal has, in two separate matters, issued rulings that have directly aided a massive accumulation of wealth by his sons. Not only did Justice Sabharwal fail to disclose these conflicts of interest, the pattern of his actions invites the conclusion that they were intended to benefit his family's financial interests. The details of this matter are available at http://tinyurl.com/2u9zjg and an attempt by Justice Sabharwal to defend his actions (http://tinyurl.com/2rvwyy) is rebutted at http://tinyurl.com/2rdo7l.


Corruption at the very apex of the judiciary is an exceedingly serious matter and if left unchecked will gravely undermine the faith of the ordinary citizen in this institution.

Thus, we ask that the charges against Justice Sabharwal be subject to a thorough criminal investigation for violations of the Prevention of Corruption Act either by the Central Bureau of Investigation or by a Judicial Committee.

We also note, with profound regret, the recent action of the Delhi High Court in holding Mid-day guilty of Contempt without taking note of the truthfulness of the material published by the paper in this matter and call upon the judiciary to reverse this miscarriage of justice.

Sincerely,

Shanti Bhushan
Senior Advocate and Former Law Minister

Prashant Bhushan
Senior Advocate

Arvind Kejriwal
Social Activist and Founder, Parivartan

Bhaskar Rao
Chairman, Centre for Media Studies

Arundhati Roy
Writer and Social Activist

and also,