After his recent transfer to the reserve pool, Supreme Court registrar Shree Prasad Pundit, who is to retire in about two weeks, has submitted his resignation to the law and justice ministry, citing the reasons of Chief Justice Hari Prasad Sharma’s ‘interference in administrative and financial matters.’ He has also put forward the moral reason that it will be ‘unethical’ for him to accept salary while in the reserve pool. The outgoing registrar has also alleged Sharma’s involvement in ‘misdeeds’ while purchasing vehicles and computers for the jud-iciary. Whatever the truth, Pundit’s allegations will hardly do credit to the public image of CJ Sharma, who has already done more than enough, by his controversial remarks and actions, to lower it to dangerous levels.

If there is nothing incriminating against Pundit, who has been registrar for about five years and who, in that capacity, has seen four CJs, including Sharma, dumping him in the reserve pool shortly before he is to retire may have come from a desire to humiliate him, if not from other unholy motives. This is the first time in the history of the Supreme Court that a CJ has dumped a registrar in the reserve pool. But Pundit, who too has been blamed, even if informally, for some wrongdoings, would have made a stronger case if he had been able to come out with his charges before his transfer.

But much more important is the need to investigate the charges. However, in the absence of the Lower House, which alone has the constitutional authority to probe cases of corruption and misconduct and impeach a sitting CJ, a serious quesion arises about who will do the job. As for the discharge of his basic constitutional duty, CJ Sharma, during these four months, has heard just a single case. One may therefore wonder how he has spent his time. Even judicial administration is his secondary duty meant to facilitate his primary one of justice delivery. Sharma has also refused to accept writ petitions on some of the important constitutional issues. Moreover, he has kept pending a review petition that seeks the restoration of the Lower House, a case so vital to the resolution of the unprecedented constitutional crisis in the country.