Former CJI spent Rs 2.26 crore on foreign trips

Kannur: NHRC chairman and former Chief Justice of Supreme Court K G Balakrishnan had spent Rs 2.26 crore on foreign trips while he was acting as the CJI. During the three years from April 2007 to April 2010, he went for 21 foreign trips. In majority of his trips he was accompanied by his wife Nirmala Balakrishnan. The money was spent on flight charges and as daily allowance. During his trips he had attended programmes organized by foreign universities and functions not organized by Indian government. The information came to light as per an RTI petition filed by the Lawyers Congress state president Adv T Asifali and was given by additional registrar of SC and Central Public Information officer Rajpal Arora. His first foreign trip was to London via Dubai on April 28, 2007 for attending the World Common Law Judiciary Conference. He returned on May 6 and the flight charge for CJI alone was Rs 1, 73, 828 and daily allowances Rs 22, 316. InJune he went to Hongkong and London. His journey to Hong Kong was to attend the Law Asia conference of chief justices held from June 4 to 8.

Though the conference concluded on June 8, the CJI returned only on June 15. The longest trips were from May 18, 2008 to June 8 to Ottava in Canada, Durban and Cape Town in South Africa. The flight charge alone was Rs 5, 98,928 and daily allowance Rs 43,849. On the whole, the former CJI had covered major cities in all continents in three year's time.






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