A group of arbitrators and mediators have called for an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the ‘illegal’ establishment of the International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (IAMC) in Hyderabad, and the role of former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana in starting and promoting the centre. The signatories to the letter – a copy of which is available with TNM – addressed to the Union government on August 15, include leading arbitrator and senior advocate at the Madras High Court Sriram Panchu, advocates Anil Xavier and Geeta Ramaseshan, along with 62 other mediators and arbitrators. Justice NV Ramana retired on August 26, 2022 after spending 16 months in office.
The letter chiefly alleges that Justice Ramana ventured to promote and solicit business for the centre by putting pressure on courts and tribunals under his administration, and also asking lawyers and clients to utilise the service of his centre by paying the fee and charges. The centre is neither a body of the Government of India, nor that of the Supreme Court of India. “All these have yielded results and financial gains. The first Quarterly report released by IAMC on March 29, 2022, stated that IAMC in a short period, has conducted more than 50 hearings, both administered under the IAMC rules as well as ad-hoc, with disputes aggregating USD 400 million,” the representation alleged.
The IAMC was inaugurated in December 2021 and the trust deed was executed by Justice NV Ramana and mentions him as the author of the trust. The representation urges the Indian government to constitute a high-level committee to conduct an inquiry into the “..illegal acts of Justice NV Ramana, including the illegal establishment of the IAMC at Hyderabad and the transfer of public land to the said centre and also frame appropriate guidelines relating to the conduct of judges while in office and restraining them from involving in private ventures and obtaining huge amounts of public assets and monies…”
The signatories accused Justice Ramana of using his official position to gain benefits for IAMC, stating that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed ‘with lightning speed’ between Telangana government and the trust, agreeing to give five acres of land at Hi-Tech city, Puppalguda, Hyderabad with an estimated value of over Rs 250 crore. During the interim period, for hosting the centre, the government gave 25,000 sq ft of prime commercial built-up space fully furnished in Hyderabad’s financial district, free of cost, the letter said.
“The largesse from the state government of Telangana was only to oblige the positional pressure exerted by Justice Ramana and use his close friendship with the Chief Minister,” the letter alleged. The representation also seeks the Comptroller and Auditor General of India to investigate into the matter as it “involves large scale misuse of public funds and assets by the Government of Telangana overlooking procedure and propriety.”
The letter also alleged that the Telangana government issued an order that IAMC will be the institution for all the contracts above Rs 3 crore where the ministries, departments and other entities controlled or managed by Telangana government are involved. “The order also mandates that all the PSU disputes of value above Rs 100 million will be handled by IAMC only,” the signatories alleged.
The mediators said that it could be seen from the trust deed that Justice NV Ramana as the author of the trust had appointed Supreme court Justice L Nageshwara Rao and former Supreme court Justice RV Raveendran as life trustees and Justice Hima Kohli and A Indrakaran Reddy as ex-officio trustees in their respective capacities as the Chief Justice of Telangana and Telangana Law Minister. While Justice L Nageshwara Rao retired from the Supreme court on June 7, 2022, Justice Hima Kohli is a sitting judge of the Supreme court, elevated on August 31, 2021.
The letter said that appointing Justice RV Raveendran as a life trustee, was inappropriate. “In a criminal case filed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Andhra Pradesh against a former Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh, along with Justice Ramana’s two daughters for illegally purchasing premium land in Amaravati before it was declared the capital, a connected matter came up where a former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High court, Justice V Eswaraiah admitted that he was “trying to collect more evidence” on the alleged involvement of the daughters of the sitting top judge in the Amaravati land scan. In this matter, the High court had directed Justice Raveendran to conduct an inquiry into this phone conversation. It is regrettable that Justice Ramana included Justice Raveendran, who was enquiring in a matter connected with allegations of corrupt practice of procuring huge land by the daughters of Ramana, to be a life trustee in the trust that he established,” the signatories alleged.
The representation has been sent to the President, the Prime Minister, Supreme court judges, the Comptroller and Auditor General among others.