Chennai:
Madras High Court judge Justice Reghupathy on Saturday once again reiterated his previous claim that in his letter to the then Chief Justice of Madras High Court HL Gokhale, he had specifically named former Telecom Minister A raja, alleging that he had tried to influence him in a case.
Law Minister M Veerappa Moily had on Friday said that Raja's name did not figure in the letter written by the former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan to him in August 2009.
(Watch: Former CJI did not mention Raja's name, says Moily)
"I wrote to the then Chief Justice of India, Justice Balakrishnan. He wrote us back...the name of any minister did not figure in it. That is all. There is no controversy at all. This is a matter of fact," he told reporters.
Moily was referring to the correspondence between him and Balakrishnan after a group of MPs had submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh alleging Raja had attempted to influence Madras High Court judge Justice Reghupathy to get bail for his family friends.
"No, I am sorry, he has not taken any name, or my name. There is nothing wrong," he said, adding that when the issue of the memorandum was referred to the Law Ministry, he had written to Balakrishnan to seek his response.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Balakrishnan had said he had received a report on the issue from the then Chief Justice of Madras High Court HL Gokhale and not a letter from Justice Reghupathy. He added that the report did not mention the name of the minister. (
Read: Was former Chief Justice of India aware of Raja influencing a judge?)
Balakrishnan had also said that he had brought the facts to the notice of the Law Minister.
"All these matters were brought to the notice of the Union Law Minister on August 18, 2009 in response to his letter to me drawing reference to the memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister by the MPs of different political parties..." (
Read: Balakrishnan drags in the law minister)
Justice Gokhale however maintains he sent his report along with Reghupathy's original letter that clearly named Raja to the former Chief Justice of India.
"The former Chief Justice of India has stated in his press conference that in my letter I did not mention the name of any union minister having talked to Justice Reghupathy over the phone to influence him. I may point out that Justice Reghupathy's letter was already with him and in the second paragraph Justice Reghupathy had specifically mentioned the name of minister Raja," he said in a statement on Tuesday. (With PTI Inputs)