CJI allows CBI to book Allahabad High Court judge

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 31

In an unprecedented move, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has allowed the CBI to register a criminal case against Justice SN Shukla — a sitting judge of the Allahabad High Court — after an in-house panel of judges indicted him for granting favours to a private medical college for MBBS admissions.

The CJI has already written to PM Narendra Modi to initiate proceedings for the removal of Justice Shukla, from whom all judicial work was withdrawn following the allegation. The permission for registration of an FIR follows a request by the probe agency to the CJI that a preliminary inquiry registered against Justice Shukla and others, on the advice of Justice Gogoi’s predecessor Justice Dipak Misra, had found some material against the judge and that a regular case needed to be registered.

Seeking permission for an FIR, the agency placed a note on the preliminary inquiry and a chronological chart explaining the judge’s alleged misconduct. “In the facts and circumstances of the case I am constrained to grant permission to initiate a regular case for investigation as sought for in your letter...,”  CJI Gogoi responded the the CBI’s request. UP Advocate General had brought Justice Shukla’s alleged misconduct to the notice of the then CJI Misra in 2017. Thereafter, a three-judge panel headed by Justice Indira Banerjee had indicted him, saying there was substance in allegations against him.

What rules say

According to the top court’s ruling in Justice K Veeraswamy case (1991), no criminal case can be registered against a sitting judge of the Supreme Court or a high court without the CJI’s permission.

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