Two orders in one case: Supreme Court asks Madras High Court Registrar-General to submit report
The Hindu
The certified copy of the order had crucial portions missing from what was pronounced by judges in open court
The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its shock at how a Madras High Court order seemed to have undergone a "substantial modification" from what was pronounced and signed by the judges in open court.
A Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and B.V. Nagarathna described the turn of events as “very unusual”. It was taken aback when counsel for the petitioner side, senior advocate K. Subramaniam, contended that crucial parts of the order were “altered”.
Mr. Subramaniam, to make his case true, pointed to two “different” versions of the same order pronounced by a Division Bench of the High Court on September 1.
He said the copy downloaded by the petitioner from the High Court website reflected the order pronounced in open court. But the certified copy of the order, issued a few days later, had crucial portions missing.
These portions include a direction to the respondent to deposit ₹ 111,62,90,724, together with the accrued interest, in the Indian Overseas Bank, Annanagar East branch, Chennai, in a fixed deposit. The part was very much there in the downloaded copy but conspicuously absent in the certified copy.
Moreover, the order of status quo in the website copy was modified into an order of interim injunction in the certified copy.