Registrar Is Ordered By SC To File Police Complaint Regarding Fabrication Of Order

After taking notice of an internal investigation report that claimed one of its orders, which was appended with a pending petition, was forged, the Supreme Court instructed the court’s registrar to file a police complaint.

The report of the Registrar (Judicial Listing) was read by a bench made up of justices A S Oka and Pankaj Mithal, and they concluded that it was “obvious” that the document claiming to be a copy of an order from this court was “fabricated.”

The bench said on Tuesday that the Registrar (Judicial Listing) “must initiate the criminal law by lodging a complaint with the jurisdictional police station.”

It gave the involved police station’s officer charge the order to provide the court a report on the inquiry within two months.

The court, which had previously given notice to the concerned attorneys, noted: “Though notice was issued to Prity Mishra, advocate for examining her role, she has chosen not to appear before this court today.”

It said that the top court registrar must provide police a copy of the judgement as well as the annexures and that it is up to the police to investigate the purported role the attorney played.

On December 1, the bench has set the matter for consideration of the police report.

Prior to this, the supreme court issued an internal investigation order after observing that a petition had two separate rulings issued by the same bench in the same topic.

“The first order is to terminate employment, and the second order is to permit the SLP. We mandate that an investigation be conducted into this matter and that a report be provided to this court by September 20, 2023. The bench had said in its judgment from August 22 that “the criminal law would have to be initiated if the Registrar (Judicial) determines that this is a case of fabricating orders of this court.

It had sent letters to the complainant Lokesh Madanmohan Agarwal and the two attorneys involved, Mishra and Aftab Ali Khan.