Fabrication of court order, SC directs registrar to lodge police complaint

In an order passed on September 26, the bench perused the report submitted by the registrar (judicial listing) and it is “obvious” from the report that the document purporting to be a copy of the order of “this court which is marked by Annexure-III in the report is a fabricated document”.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court has directed its registrar to lodge a complaint after considering an internal inquiry report, which said that one of the court's orders was fabricated. A bench comprising justices AS Oka and Pankaj Mithal noted that the fabricated order was annexed with a pending petition. In an order passed on September 26, the bench perused the report submitted by the registrar (judicial listing) and it is “obvious” from the report that the document purporting to be a copy of the order of “this court, which is marked by Annexure-III in the report, is a fabricated document”.

The bench said, “The Registrar (Judicial Listing) must set the criminal law in motion by lodging a complaint with the jurisdictional police station”. The bench added, “Though notice was issued to Prity Mishra, advocate for examining her role, she has chosen not to appear before this court today. It is for the investigating agency to examine the role allegedly played by her”. The bench said the registrar (judicial listing) while lodging a complaint, shall also submit a copy of this order, along with the annexures referred to in his report.

The apex court directed the officer in-charge of the police station concerned to submit a report to it on the investigation within two months. The apex court has fixed the matter for further hearing on December 1. The court had ordered an internal inquiry after noticing that two different orders were passed by the same bench in a matter and these orders were filed with a petition.

In the same matter, the apex court, in an order passed on August 22, had said that it has perused annexures A and B (pages 8-10) and there are two orders dated July 25, 2022, passed by the same bench. “The first order is of dismissal and the second order is of allowing the SLP. We direct the Registrar (Judicial) to hold an inquiry into this aspect and submit a report to this court. If the Registrar (Judicial) finds that this is a case of fabrication of orders of this court, it follows that the criminal law to be set in motion," the apex court said.