Lawyers' forum Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad on Tuesday expressed dismay at retired judges of the Supreme Court and high courts appearing as expert witnesses before foreign courts in support of Indian fugitives despite drawing their pension in India.

The forum urged Parliament to lay down comprehensive legislation to ban such practices.

"The documented record is damning. Justice Deepak Verma (Retd., Supreme Court) has appeared against India’s interest in three separate foreign proceedings: the Mallya bankruptcy; Sanjay Bhandari in 2025, and recently in Nirav Deepak Modi v. Government of India case in England… where he opined that India's sovereign assurances were 'a diplomatic promise rather than a legally enforceable formal assurance’ — an 'expert' testimony which, if accepted at face value could have defeated India's extradition request," Parishad president K. Srinivasa Murthy and general secretary D. Bharat Kumar said in a resolution adopted at the organisation’s national council meeting.

The organisation has roots in the RSS.

The Parishad has among its patrons former Chief Justice of India U.U.Lalit.

The Parishad said former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju, had earlier appeared for fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi before the Westminster Magistrates Court in 2021 and made comments painting the Indian judiciary in bad light.

The UK court had held that his evidence was "less than objective and reliable", and that it was "tinged with resentment bearing the hallmarks of an outspoken critic with a personal agenda". The court had said Katju's move to brief journalists before testifying was "astonishing" and "questionable for someone who served the Indian judiciary at such a high level".

"The irony is that these noble men draw their pension from the Consolidated Fund of India, funded by the same citizens whose bank deposits were plundered by the fugitives they chose to assist," the Parishad said.

"The Parishad records that Justice Deepak Verma, Justice Markandey Katju, Justice Abhay Thipsay and Late Justice Pana Chand Jain have forfeited their moral entitlement to every benefit and designation flowing from the constitutional offices they once held,” it added.

The organisation demanded that Parliament enact a Judicial Officers (Post Retirement Conduct and Accountability) Act.