NEW DELHI: The minutes leading to the pronouncement of the verdict in the CBI vs CBI case saw something of a drama in the corridors of Supreme Court as court number 1 was locked and journalists and visitors therein were evicted by police personnel who announced that CJI Ranjan Gogoi was not available for the day.

The judgment was scheduled to be pronounced at 10.30 am on Tuesday by a bench of the CJI and Justices Sanjay K Kaul and K M Joseph. But minutes after court number 1 was shut it was notified on the SC website that the judgment would be pronounced by Justice Kaul in court number 12, the farthest courtroom from the CJI’s court.

It transpired that the CJI had been taken ill and Justice Kaul, before reading the judgment, clarified that it was a unanimous judgment authored by the CJI. That made it a rare case of a judgment being pronounced in the court in the absence of its author.

Tuesday’s drama was preceded by some confusion on Monday. When the pronouncement of the judgment was first notified, it was listed before a bench of the CJI and Justices L Nageswar Rao and Kaul. However, another notification was issued that a bench of CJI and Justices Kaul and Joseph would pronounce the judgment.

