NEW DELHI, Dec 26 � High-profile corporate disputes coupled with the turf war between the Judiciary and the Executive engaged the Supreme Court in the year 2010 which even saw the Prime Minister facing searching questions for his alleged �inaction� in the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam, reports PTI.
The 2G issue did not only lead to the resignation of A Raja as Telecom Minister but also hit hard Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as his office had to explain to the apex court about his alleged �inaction� and �delay� in taking decision for granting sanction to prosecute the DMK leader.
While the logjam in Parliament over NDA�s demand for JPC probe into the scam continued, the apex court, which had severely pulled up Raja for bypassing the Prime Minister, decided to monitor the probe by directing CBI to widen its compass to cover the grant of licences by both the NDA and the UPA regimes between 2001-2007.
However, before the spectrum scam which according to the CAG report caused a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer dragged Prime Minister into the controversy, the UPA regime was in a spot over the public distribution system (PDS) in the apex court which castigated it for allowing foodgrains to rot in godown instead of distributing it to the poor.
What irked the apex court were the remarks of union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar who had said that the judges had only suggested and not ordered the government to distribute foodgrains free of cost to the hungry.
While the court was lashing out at the Government for failing to properly implement the social welfare measures, Prime Minister utilised the public platform to sent a signal to Judiciary to refrain from interfering in policy matters.
However, fresh embarrassment came to him and his government when a Bench of Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia questioned the appointment of controversial bureaucrat P J Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner, despite a corruption case pending against him in a Kerala Court.
The apex court is awaiting the Government�s response on whether Thomas, who was a secretary in telecom ministry when spectrum scam surfaced, meets the criteria of person of �impeccable integrity� to don the office of CVC, more so when his name was not cleared by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj.
Thomas might have survived for a while but another constitutional functionary, Prasar Bharti chief B S Lalli failed to secure any reprieve from the top court despite his legal blusters to it and ended up in suspension on the orders of President Pratibha Patil in charges of corruption.
The Judiciary had its own moments of embarrassment involving open spat between sitting Supreme Court judge H L Gokhale and former Chief Justice of India K G Balak-rishnan with the two contradicting each other. While Gokhale insisted that Raja�s name was there in the communication to Balakrishnan as CJI, the latter denied it.
The letter was written to bring to the then CJI�s notice that Raja had allegedly tried to influence Madras High Court judge R Reghupathy (since retired) in a bail matter.
The image of judiciary also got the beating as names of judicial officers and judges including one from the Supreme Court surfaced for their alleged misdemeanour in the Uttar Pradesh Provident Fund scam.
The Judiciary also found itself in a fix when the Delhi High Court, in a bold judgement, said the office of the CJI is within the ambit of the Right to Information Act and judges were bound to disclose their assets.
Stung by the verdict, the Supreme Court appealed to itself through its registry contending that bringing the office of the CJI under the RTI law will affect its judicial independence and transparency.
And the fag end of the year gave another shocker to the judiciary when a senior apex court judge Markandey Katju raised serious doubts over the integrity of some of the Allahabad High Court judges, saying that �there is something rotten� there.
Some corporate legal disputes too hit the spotlight in the apex court. They included the much-awaited verdict on the gas row between the two Ambani brothers which was reserved on December 18 last year.
Besides the Ambani gas dispute, when the telecom sector was under the apex court�s scanner in the Spectrum scam, British telecom giant Vodafone rushed to it against the Bombay High Court order directing it pay Rs 11,000 crore as tax to the Income Tax Department.
Vodafone, however, found itself in a tricky situation as the apex court directed it to first deposit Rs 2,500 crore along with a bank guarantee of Rs 8,500 crore to it, pending adjudication of the dispute.
