New Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir says he is being wrongly indicted by his successor and has demanded an apology for the observations against him on case related to a corporate group. Speaking to Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate, Justice Kabir hit out at his successor Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam and also denied any leak of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) judgement to medical colleges.

The Former Chief Justice of India shared his views on several issues ranging from judgement on NEET, corruption in the judiciary, Prashant Bhushan and others.

Denying that he had any knowledge of the NEET judgement being leaked, the former CJI said, “I do not know if the judgement on medical entrance exams was leaked. What Justice Dave was going to decide was not known to us. Either it was a coincidence or a leak, I don’t know.”

The judgement paved the way for private colleges to conduct their own examination. “How did the lawyer knew that one of the justice was going to dissent on NEET judgement” Kabir remarked when asked about the lawyer writing about the judgement a few hours before it was actually delivered.

“The draft copy of the judgement was given to Justice Dave one week before the judgement was given,” he said.

Altamas Kabir also said that he was being wrongly indicted by his successor Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam and demanded an apology for the same. “Indictment of judgments by my bench by the bench of current CJI is incorrect. I owe an apology for the wrong indictment,” he said.

He also demanded an apology from Prashant Bhushan for his allegations on the former CJI regarding a conflict of interest case. “Prashant Bhushan has got mixed up like he always does. Media has made him what he is today. He also owns a apology,” he said. On the criticisms levelled on him he remarked, “I do have some enemies, Prashant Bhushan is perhaps one of them.”

Kabir also voiced his disappointment on being targeted by certain former colleagues, “I never expected my colleagues to do this.”

The former CJI also rubbished the rumours that there is corruption at the Supreme Court level. “Corruption issue in judiciary is exaggerated, ” he said.

Expressing his support for the collegium system which is under criticism by Justice Verma, he said, “I wish that Justice Verma had said these things when he was in office.”

“Stick by the collegium system for elevation of judges to the Supreme Court. It is the best possible system under the present circumstances,” Kabir added.