A Supreme Court bench of justices Arun Mishra and Navin Sinha on Friday took strong exception to another bench overruling its demolition order against five apartment complexes constructed in violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms in Kochi.
They were upset when they were told that during the summer break, the coordinate bench comprising two judges granted relief to the apartment complexes against the demolition order.
In May, Justice Mishra and Sinha had ordered demolition of all illegal structures built on the notified CRZ at the Maradu municipality in Kerala’s Ernakulam District.
However, last month, another bench had assured that the review pleas will be heard in the first week of July, and then the vacation bench ordered a status quo on the demolition of the apartment complexes comprising 400 flats.
“We have serious objection [to] this...this cannot be allowed to happen...Heights of judicial impropriety...That bench should not have passed any order. We are saying this with full responsibility,” the judges said, rebuking the petitioners and their counsel for suppressing facts to secure the relief. Justice Mishra said: “You went to another bench and suppressed facts to get a different order.”
The judge did not even spare senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for the flat owners, and said: “You are a senior counsel. You are a TMC MP. If we say something against you, it will appear in papers”. The lawyer claimed ignorance about the developments in the past.
{{/usCountry}}The judge did not even spare senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for the flat owners, and said: “You are a senior counsel. You are a TMC MP. If we say something against you, it will appear in papers”. The lawyer claimed ignorance about the developments in the past.
{{/usCountry}}“You may not be aware. But some other senior counsel was appearing earlier. They are changing counsel for every hearing because they know what fraud was played on court...,” he lashed out, accusing the lawyers of being “part of the fraud”.
“Is there no ethics left? Is money all that matters to you? Senior counsel should refuse to appear in such matters”, he added. He said this was not happening in just one case but in many. “Some government officials also think they can play with SC. I will punish them, you are playing fraud with SC,” he said.