CHENNAI: In an embarrassing first in its 156-year-old history, the Madras HC on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the 'missing' of 100 case bundles that were not returned to court by former judge Justice T Mathivanan who heard those cases.

The judge had retired in May 2017 and in most cases he ‘delivered’ an oral order in open court. But actual orders were neither delivered nor made available to litigants. The bundles, too, were never seen in HC office.

“It is alarming to note that case bundles, 100 in numbers, disappeared from the radar like vessels going missing in Bermuda Triangle,” remarked Justice G Jayachandran, adding that the court was constrained to order a CBI probe as an in-house probe ordered by Chief Justice Indira Banerjee failed to trace the bundles.

Asking joint director of CBI, Chennai zone, to take necessary action, Justice Jayachandran said: “It is submitted across the Bar that there are several cases where the former judge reserved the orders, or pronounced them in open court, but the order copies had not seen the light of the day. Inquiries with the registry reveal that about 100 bundles in which the judge had reserved orders are missing and the Chief Justice has ordered registrar (vigilance) to make inquiries and trace the bundles missing from the residence of Justice T Mathivanan, since retired.”

Pointing out that records have been reconstructed, the bench said the court was worried about the missing of case records from the chartered high court which is also the ‘court of records’.

