Above: (Left) Allahabad High Court and (right) Supreme Court
Retired special CBI judge Shyam Lal has moved the Supreme Court against what he has called “disparaging remarks” made against him by the Allahabad High Court sitting judge while handing out verdict in the Aarushi murder case.
On Friday (February 9), the bench of justices Ranjan Gogoi and R Banumathi issued notice to the CBI, the Allahabad High Court and the State of Uttar Pradesh and sought their response in four weeks.
Senior advocate S R Singh, appearing for the retired judge submitted that the criticisms passed against him is eventually going to impact his reputation as an unprejudiced and transparent judge and should be revoked.
Singh further submitted that the comments in the judgment were neither justified nor were in pursuance with the settled law of the Supreme Court.
The Allahabad High Court had said: “Some reflection need be made upon the style and approach of the trial Judge who recorded conviction and awarded sentence against the appellants. The learned trial Judge has prejudged things in his own fashion, drawn conclusion by embarking on erroneous analogy conjecturing to the brim on apparent facts telling a different story propelled by vitriolic reasoning.
“It can by no means be denied that the trial Judge, perhaps out of extra zeal and enthusiasm and on the basis of self perception adopted partial and parochial approach in giving vent to his own emotional belief and conviction and thus tried to give concrete shape to his own imagination stripped of just evaluation of evidence and facts of this case.”
Lal had convicted Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar for double-murder of Hemraj and Aarushi Talwar while handing out life imprisonment to them in 2013.
In 2017, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court, comprising of Justices A K Mishra and B K Narayana had quashed the conviction of Talwars on the provision of benefit of the doubt.
—India Legal Bureau