New Delhi, March 26: IPS Officer Seemanth Kumar Singh and IAS Officer J. Manjunath got substantial relief from the Supreme Court when it expunged the adverse remarks made against the two by the single-judge of the High Court.
Apart from expunging the adverse remarks, the Supreme Court also quashed the orders passed against Seemanth Kumar Singh and Manjunath, including summoning of certain records from the CBI related to a probe conducted 10 years ago against Singh in connection with the illegal mining cases.
The applicants had questioned the legality of adverse remarks made by a single-judge in his order dated July 4 and 7 in 2022 against ACB, Manjunath and Seemanth Kumar Singh.
Singh at that time was heading the ACB which is now defunct.
The two-judge bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice Krishna Murari and Justice Asanuddin Amanullah passed orders on 21st March expunging all the adverse remarks. The bench also allowed the three separate appeals filed by the state government, Seemanth Kumar Singh and Manjunath.
The Supreme Court termed the remarks made by the single-judge of the High Court against Seemanth Kumar Singh and Manjunath as “unfair, not in the interest of Justice, a gross abuse of the process of law and without any justification”.
The Supreme Court pointed out that Seemanth Kumar Singh was not a party to the bail proceedings personally as he was merely heading the ACB. “Making scathing remarks against him (Singh) was unreasonable and without justification”, the Apex Court observed.
On Manjunath, the Apex Court said “the remarks are gross abuse of the process of law. Such remarks not only cause injury to his reputation but has the potential to cause great prejudice to his actual trial,” the Supreme Court noted.
EOM
