A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said that the Court will instead appoint a committee on its own since accepting the government’s sealed cover suggestion could give an impression that it is a government appointed committee.
The issue calls for complete transparency and if the Court accepts the government suggestion, it would amount to keeping the other side in the dark, the Court underscored.
“We will not accept the sealed cover suggestion by you because we want to maintain full transparency and if we accept suggestions in sealed cover it is like we have kept it away from other side as people will think it is a government appointed committee,” said the CJI.
If we accept suggestions, we should disclose it to the other side so that there is transparency, the Court made it clear.
“So we will appoint the committee and appoint members on our own,” the bench said.
The bench then proceeded to hear the petitioners before reserving its verdict in the matter.
The Court also made it clear that it will not appoint a sitting judge to the committee to examine the issue.
The Court also refused to did not take a favourable view of the Central government’s submission that the impact of the report on market was nil.
“But you have said impact on the market is zero.. going by what you said. But stats say investors faced lakhs of crores worth losses,” the Court remarked.
Source: Barandbench
