The Supreme Court on Monday decided not to take action against its Registry staff after the officers involved acknowledged that they had mistakenly listed a bail application in a money-laundering case ahead of its scheduled time.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Abhay S. Oka and Augustine George Masih noted that the Deputy Registrar and Assistant Registrar involved had acknowledged their error in overriding a prior court order and scheduling the plea for an earlier date.
"We have perused the report by the registry. The concerned Deputy Registrar and Assistant Registrar have accepted that by ignoring that one of the petitions was already listed on (so and so date), prayer was made to CJI to list both together. Since mistake has been accepted, no action is called for," the Court said.
The case, which was set for October 14, was prematurely listed on September 20, sparking concerns of possible manipulation of case listings at the Supreme Court. The Court had previously directed the Registry to account for the irregularity, deeming the incident "unacceptable" and requesting a report on the issue.
Upon reviewing the report, the Bench observed that the error occurred due to a request made to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to club two related petitions, without factoring in the original hearing date of one of them.
The case involves a man charged in a money-laundering investigation where Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Amanatullah Khan is the primary accused. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) alleges that Khan purchased immovable properties under the names of benamidars, Zeeshan Haider and Daud Nasir, concealing the actual amounts paid for the transactions.
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