SC seeks status of graft plaint against ex-CJI Balakrishnan

The Supreme Court today asked attorney general G E Vahanvati to apprise it about the status of a complaint filed in May last year against former Chief Justice of India and currently chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, K G Balakrishnan, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into his assets.

An apex court bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatantra Kumar gave the attorney general 14 days to file the status report on the complaint against Balakrishnan.
 
The court told the attorney general that a complaint was filed before President Pratibha Patil, who in turn forwarded it to the home ministry for further action. The court told the attorney general that it wanted to know the status of action taken by the home ministry.

The complaint was filed by M Furquan, a Delhi-based journalist, on 5 May 2010, seeking a CBI probe into the assets of Balakrishnan and his family members, which he claimed were disproportionate to his known sources of income.

In a letter to the president, he alleged, "Justice Balakrishnan is a very corrupt man and he should not be appointed the NHRC chairman". He also sought investigation against Balakrishnan on the grounds that he had amassed wealth and his son had travelled to Dubai nine times in the last one year.

The bench said that till it receives a response from the AG, it will keep the matter adjourned. The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate M L Sharma seeking a judicial inquiry into the alleged disproportionate assets of the former chief justice.

Earlier this week, the income tax department had refused to disclose Balakrishnan's income for the last five years under a Right to Information petition, because Balakrishnan objected to the disclosure, saying it was not covered by the RTI Act.