The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into how papers related to at least 100 cases, sent to the home of a former judge, had gone missing. The papers were delivered over a period of time to the home of Justice T Mathivanan, who retired in May 2017, reported PTI.

“It is alarming to note that case bundles, hundred in number, disappearing... like missing vessels in the Bermuda Triangle,” said Justice G Jayachandran in his order. “The court is worried about the missing case records from Chartered High Court, which is also the Court of Records.”

The matter came to light after a petitioner earlier told the court that although Mathivanan had allowed his plea in March last year and read out the order in open court, he had not been able to get a copy of the written order. When the matter came before Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, she ordered the reconstruction of the case bundle and posted it before Justice Jayachandran.

On Tuesday, Jayachandran was told that there were multiple cases where the former judge had pronounced an order in open court but written orders had not materialised. An inquiry by the Registry then showed that papers of at least 100 cases in which Mathivanan had reserved judgment were missing.

“It appears that despite in-house investigation ordered by the chief justice, till date the case records sent to the judge’s residence have not been retrieved,” said Jayachandran.

The judge said that the CBI would be the prosecuting agency in the 10 petitions listed before him on “matters related to reconstruction”.