Sorry for my speech: Jana to judge

Krishnamurthy, when contacted by The Indian Express, confirmed that he wrote to Khare and Rao but denied that he apologised to them. He admitted that ‘‘there was a mix-up’’ and that ‘‘it was not proper to talk about the Government’s achievements in the presence of a Supreme Court judge.’’

Last Thursday, Rao had invited Justice Khare to a function at Shastri Bhawan to formally receive from the Minister the first set of CDs containing 176 reports the commission has submitted to the Government over five decades.

Rao, himself a former Supreme Court judge, addressed the gathering and Krishnamurthy released the CDs. Justice Khare delivered a short speech lauding the idea of making these reports accessible to the public.

But when Krishnamurthy spoke subsequently, he spoke less about the Law Commission’s work and more about the achievements of the Law Ministry in the three years of Atal Behari Vajpayee’s reign. He spoke about the Government’s legal and judicial reforms and how he had begun the process of evolving a political consensus on setting up a National Judicial Commission to appoint and discipline judges.

A press conference was scheduled later but the moment Krishnamurthy ended his speech, Rao got up and announced that Khare would be leaving immediately. When a reporter called out to Justice Khare, he stopped and politely redirected the media to Krishnamurthy. Sources said the judges made their ‘‘displeasure’’ felt.

The next morning, Krishnamurthy sent separate but similar letters to Khare and Rao apologising for the impropriety and assuring them that it was entirely unintentional.

The CDs, containing all the Law Commission reports, mark a breakthrough in providing a wealth of information to lawyers and researchers within the country and abroad on the Indian legal system.