New Delhi: In a stinging attack, Chief Justice of India V N Khare today (Mar 1, 2004) said that the Supreme Court stepped in to protect the victims and witnesses in the post-Godhra riot cases as there was "complete collusion" between the accused and prosecution in Gujarat.

"There was no prosecution in the riot cases at all. Therefore the Supreme Court stepped in to break the collusion between the prosecution and the accused," Justice Khare said in an interview.

The concern for the victims and the witnesses came to the fore when Justice Khare, who retires tomorrow, said, "What will happen to the victims and witnesses if the prosecution and the accused collude throwing the rule of law to the wind."

He was both anguished and pained by the turn of events during the trial of the riot cases but determined to salvage the justice delivery system.

"I gave a new dimension to criminal jurisprudence as on the one hand one Bench of the Supreme Court monitored the progress of prosecution in riot cases while another Bench decided on the judicial side the correctness of the High Court order (in acquitting the accused in Best Bakery case)," Justice Khare said.

Asked whether the judiciary is facing a serious problem of corruption, Justice Khare replied in the affirmative but refused to quantify the percentage of honest judges like one of his predecessors Justice S P Bharucha did. Justice Bharucha had said 80 per cent of judges were honest.

"Of course, corruption is there but mostly in subordinate judiciary. It is shaking the faith of the people in the judiciary," he admitted.