They were fired for allegedly changing an order to make it seem like Ambani did not have to appear personally in the contempt plea filed by Ericsson. 

The Supreme Court on Wednesday fired two court officials for allegedly tampering with a court order in the Anil Ambani-Ericsson case.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the court said that Manav Sharma and Tapan Kumar Chakraborty had changed the judicial order uploaded on the court’s website to make it seem like Ambani did not have to appear personally in the contempt plea filed by Ericsson.

Sharma and Chakraborty held the rank of assistant registrars, whose duties include taking down all orders dictated in open court or in the judges’ chambers.

The two were dismissed using the court’s extraordinary powers under Article 311 of the constitution, and the dismissal orders were signed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

On January 7, the order that was uploaded on the Supreme Court website said the “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is dispensed with”. However, this was contrary to what the bench had said in court that day – namely that Ambani must appear in the case, as is required by the Contempt of Court Act.

On January 10, a revised order was uploaded with a crucial ‘not’ added: “personal appearance of the alleged contemnor(s) is not dispensed with”.

The order was revised after Ericsson’s lawyer pointed out the error, Telegraph reported.

This error, sources in the court told Telegraph, appears to be a deliberate act rather than a mistake.

After the revised order was uploaded, Ambani appeared before the court on January 12 and 13. The court reserved its judgment in the case on Wednesday.

According to a report published in Scroll, investigation into the matter will continue. “We don’t think this is going to end with just two court masters,” an anonymous Supreme Court official told the publication.

Source : https://thewire.in/law/two-supreme-court-employees-sacked-for-tampering-with-order-in-anil-ambani-case-report