The Supreme Court has stayed the Gujarat High Court order issuing notices to its sitting and former judges and also a sitting apex court judge over the allotment of residential plots to them by the state government in a posh locality in Sola area in Ahmedabad.
“The high court was in mortal hurry. This should not have happened. Let the order be stayed. Let us see what can be done,” a bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said, according to PTI.
The high court had on Tuesday also referred the matter to a larger bench after framing a set of questions related to its suo motu PIL on the issue. The apex court bench also comprising Justices PC Ghose and C Nagappan issued notices to the Gujarat government, judges’ cooperative society and registrar of the High Court, seeking their response within four weeks on a petition challenging the high court order.
The apex court also allowed deletion of names of sitting and former judges who were made respondents in the PIL and were issued notices.
The petition challenging the high court order was filed by one of the retired high court judges for whom senior advocate Harish Salve appeared and sought urgent intervention. Salve questioned the hurry shown by the high court in entertaining a letter by turning it into PIL over allotment of plots which was made several years ago.
The high court had on August 10 issued notices to the state government and 27 sitting as well as former judges, including that of the Supreme Court, over allotment of residential plots in the city after converting letters written by two former high court judges into a public interest litigation.