SC to Jethmalani: Doubting SC order and imputing motive to harm you

NEW DELHI: Ram Jethmalani spoke the unspeakable in the Supreme Court -- Justice Tarun Chatterjee, while heading a Bench hearing the Sohrabuddin fake encounter killing case, should not have on January 12 ordered the CBI probe as he himself was under the CBI scanner in the PF scam case.
A stunned court room waited for a response from the Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha. But before it could react, Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam admonishingly asked Jethmalani not to target the judges.
Justice Alam, part of the Bench headed by Justice Chatterjee, expressed his shock and anguish at the level of accusation that virtually struck at the root of propriety, which is the basis of public faith in the apex court.
Immediately after Justice Lodha said he detested the argument against a member of a Bench, Justice Alam said: "Your statement has hurt me. It will hurt your reputation too."
Jethmalani responded: "I have no reputation to lose. If I lose my reputation by doing my duty to point out the correct position of law, then so be it."
If Jethmalani had thought he would convince the Bench by using every possible argument to get some time to file documents which he claimed exhibited a conspiracy to destabilise the Narendra Modi government, then he was mistaken. "Will the court not have a look at the documents which I want to put on record," he asked. Though the Bench said no, senior advocate Dushyant Dave could not take it any more and sharply told Jethmalani to keep his cheap politics out of the court room and went on to question the octogenarian lawyer's ethics. This led to a stinging slanging duel between Dave and Jethmalani.