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SC dials police after HC judges get calls from man impersonating Chief Justice of India

Latest revelations come a week after the top court sacked two court masters for allegedly tampering with a court order involving Anil Ambani.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court has complained to the Delhi Police after it emerged that two high court chief justices had received calls from someone impersonating Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi seeking the elevation of certain advocates as judges.

According to a report in The Telegraph Monday, the impersonator was so convincing in his trick that two high courts chief justices — Karnataka high court acting chief justice L. Narayana Swamy and Telangana high court chief justice B. Radhakrishnan — actually believed they were speaking to Gogoi.

The report said that the impersonation came to light when two judges later spoke to Gogoi and brought up the discussion with him.

A preliminary probe has revealed that the calls to the two judges originated via the Supreme Court’s electronic private branch exchange (EPBX) telephone system.

The Tilak Nagar police station in the national capital, where the case was registered, is investigating whether it was the job of some insider or if the impersonator had re-routed a call from his mobile via the Supreme Court EPBX system. Hacking has not been ruled out.

The report said Gogoi called a meeting of the top court’s officials when he learnt of this serious breach and sought to know if the system could be hacked in the manner mentioned.

Apart from the police complaint, the CJI has also ordered an internal probe in the incident.

An advisory has also been sent to the chief justices of all high courts, telling them not to entertain any calls that claim to be from the CJI or his office.


Also read: Chief Information Commissioner to have same status as CEC, rules Supreme Court


The scam

According to The Telegraph report, a caller claiming to be Gogoi’s private secretary H.K. Juneja first called Swamy. The caller told him that the CJI wanted certain advocates to be elevated as judges and requested the names be sent to his office for approval.

The scamster, pretending to be Juneja, called Swamy again and this time said Gogoi wanted to speak to him about the recommendations. Then someone pretending to be Gogoi came on the line and spoke to Swamy reiterating the request about elevation of certain advocates as judges.

A similar incident happened when calls were made to Radhakrishnan.

The latest revelations come a week after the apex court summarily sacked two court masters for allegedly tampering with an order in a court case involving Anil Ambani.


Also read: Supreme Court sacks 2 court masters who ‘tampered’ with Anil Ambani order: Report


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1 COMMENT

  1. How can a person speak in an Epabx of a SC without knowledge of CJI. It must have been an handiwork of court staff with connivance of some lawyers of SC. It is noticed that Registrar General of SC is one of corrupt offices in SC. Some cases are routed very fast to a particular bench for a fee

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