New Delhi: Launching a fresh attack on former Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana over his role in setting up the Hyderabad-based International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC) during his time as CJI, Sriram Panchu — a leading mediator and senior advocate of the Madras High Court — has quit the panel of the Singapore International Mediation Centre with a scathing resignation letter.
Panchu’s resignation was a direct result of SIMC announcing the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IAMC last month, allowing the two to partner for further mediation. SIMC also announced that Ramana had been appointed an “expert mediator” on its panel of international mediators.
Then, on 31 August, Panchu sent a letter resigning from SIMC’s international panel in protest against Ramana’s appointment. The letter, seen by ThePrint, said Panchu was “surprised, shocked, and saddened” by SIMC’s decision to associate with the former CJI.
“I do not wish to be on any panel which has Mr Ramana as a member, nor be a part of any organisation which embraces him,” he wrote.
Inaugurated by Justice Ramana at Nanakramguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad in 2021 when he was still the Chief Justice of India, the IAMC has been a subject of great controversy.
Last year, the IAMC was the subject of a public war of words between different senior lawyers. It began with an op-ed written in The Wire by Panchu, highlighting several concerns. Chief among these was that Justice Ramana was the author of the deed for the public charitable trust and that Justice Hima Kohli and the now-retired Justice L. Nageswara Rao were named trustees.
According to the op-ed, this reflected a trend of judges “using judicial office to benefit former colleagues, or themselves by way of post-retirement benefits”. It also said that the trust had “apparently sought land and largesse from the state government of Telangana, which has happily obliged”.
While Justice Nageswara Rao retired in June 2022, Justice Kohli is still a sitting Supreme Court judge andwill retire next year. Former CJI Ramana, meanwhile, retired in August 2022.
Panchu’s article was rebutted in a counter op-ed by retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge K. Kannan, and in another op-ed by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, both published in LiveLaw.
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Demand for a CAG probe
Last year, several mediators and arbitrators also came together to demand a probe into Ramana’s “illegal acts” with regard to his role in the setting up of IAMC.
The representation was signed by 65 legal professionals, arbitrators and mediators including Panchu, and reiterated several of Panchu’s allegations. It referred to various speeches of the then CJI to claim that he had been “promoting the centre and using his official position to solicit business for the centre.” It also claimed that “Justice Ramana has obtained large financial benefits from the government of Telangana amounting to appx. Rs. 250 crores, by obtaining 5 acres of land at Hi-Tech city” for the centre.
The representation alleged that through such actions, Justice Ramana has ventured into a “business activity of administering arbitration and mediation for commercial matters by charging a fee, while occupying his position as the Chief Justice of India”, which goes against the code of conduct for judges.
It then urged the central government to constitute a high-level committee to conduct an inquiry into “illegal acts of Justice N.V. Ramana, including the illegal establishment of the International Arbitration & Mediation Centre (IAMC) at Hyderabad and the transfer of public land to the said centre and also frame appropriate guidelines relating to the conduct of judges while in office and restraining them from involving in private ventures and obtaining huge amounts of public assets and monies”.
The representation also requested the Comptroller and Auditor General of India — the country’s apex audit institution — to investigate the allegations, “since it involves a large-scale misuse of public funds and assets by the Government of Telangana overlooking procedure and propriety”.
‘Can’t use judge or Justice for Ramana’
Panchu’s resignation letter said: “Mr Ramana (I am not able to use the word Justice or Judge) has caused great damage to the cause of mediation and judicial propriety by starting, as a virtually private venture, the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC) in Hyderabad when he was heading the country’s judiciary.”
The resignation letter reiterated some of Panchu’s previous allegations against the centre. It said “at its request and quite obviously because of his (Ramana’s) patronage, the State Govt of Telangana has given the centre a huge amount of immovable assets and public funds, quite obviously again a violation of the Prevention of Corruption Act”.
Among other things, Panchu also wrote that he was “a little intrigued” by Ramana being termed an “expert mediator”, when “on a subsidiary level, there is no known record of any mediations conducted by Mr Ramana”.
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