Supreme Court Chief Justice V N Khare was on Wednesday stunned when he was told that a metropolitan magistrate in Ahmedabad has issued bailable warrants against him, the President and others without any case against them.

The warrants were the outcome of a sting operation by a television journalist to expose alleged corruption in the lower judiciary in Gujarat. The journalist claims to have obtained the warrants against President A P J Abdul Kalam, Chief Justice Khare, Justice B P Singh of the apex court and former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association R K Jain after bribing the magistrate through local lawyers.

The matter came to light after senior counsel Harish Salve mentioned, on behalf of the journalist, a PIL before a bench headed by Chief Justice Khare.

"What is happening in Gujarat? By giving Rs 40,000, you can obtain a judicial order? If this is the state of affairs, only God knows what will happen to the country," the Chief Justice said.

Taking cognizance of the PIL, a bench comprising Chief Justice Khare, Justices S B Sinha and S H Kapadia directed the registrar general of the Gujarat high court to send the concerned file to the Supreme Court at the earliest and ordered the matter to be listed for hearing on Thursday. It also asked the registrar general of the apex court to immediately inform his counterpart in the Gujarat high court about this order by phone and fax.