The Supreme Court has fired two staff members for allegedly tampering with its January 7, 2019, order passed by a Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman on a contempt petition filed by Swedish telecom equipment major Ericsson against Reliance Communications Ltd. chairman Anil Ambani.

The alleged tampering was done to make it seem like Ambani’s personal appearance in court was not required. The January 7 order of the court had directed the personal appearance of Mr. Ambani.

The order had specified that the “personal appearance is not dispensed with.” However, the order upload SC Fires 2 Staff Members For Tampering With Anil Ambani Orderd on the Supreme Court website read: “personal appearance is dispensed with,” the word “not” was omitted from the order. Even in the summons issued to the parties, it was stated: “personal appearance is dispensed with.”

The uploaded order was rectified on January 10, 2019, after it was brought to the court’s attention by Ericsson’s lead lawyer Dushyant Dave.

After a preliminary inquiry, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi exercised his disciplinary powers as the administrative head of the Supreme Court and passed the order of dismissal of Manav Sharma and Tapan Kumar Chakraborty.

Reacting to the order of dismissal, Mr. Dave said that the CJI had sent a “powerful message.”