In a fresh turn of events, a three-judge committee has recommended to the Chief Justice of India the removal of Allahabad High Court Justice S N Shukla. This comes as a step ahead after substantial allegations related to the medical admission scam were found against him.
Committee probing the case
The CJI, as per the committee’s recommendations and paragraph 7 (i) of the in-house procedure, advised Justice Shukla to either resign or take voluntary retirement. Justice Shukla, however, refused to do either. CJI then advised Allahabad HC chief justice to withdraw all judicial work from Justice Shukla with immediate effect. The medical admission scam had rocked the pillars of the judiciary. With CJI’s stern act, the path for his removal will be cleared and the CBI will have no roadblocks in registering a case against him either.
Complaints were recorded against him by the advocate general of the state. Eventually, it went into the hands of CJI who acknowledged it on September 1 last year. An in-house committee comprising Madras HC CJ Indira Banerjee, Sikkim HC CJ S K Agnihotri and MP HC Justice P K Jaiswal was set-up. It is alleged that Justice Shukla defied categorical restraint orders passed by Supreme Court last year to permit private colleges to admit students for the 2017-18 academic year. The report of the inquiry committee had that,
“Justice Shukla disgraced the values of judicial life, acted in a manner unbecoming of a judge”, lowered the “majesty, dignity and credibility of his office” and acted in breach of his oath of office.
Removal of a High Court Judge
Paragraph 7(ii) of the in-house procedure provides,
“In case the judge expresses unwillingness to resign or seek voluntary retirement, the chief justice of the high court concerned should be advised by the Chief Justice of India not to allocate any judicial work to the judge concerned and the President and the prime minister shall be intimated that this had been done because allegations against the judge were found by the committee to be so serious as to warrant initiation of proceedings for removal.”
The CJI will now recommend initiation of removal proceedings against Justice Shukla. In this event, CJI will initiate the President and the PM for removal of the judge. Thereafter the Rajya Sabha chairperson appoints a three-judge inquiry panel in consultation with the CJI under the Judges (Enquiry) Act, 1968. The committee studies the allegations examined by the in-house committee. It is then decided if the removal motion needs to be debated in Rajya Sabha.
The committee headed by Justice Banerjee gave a stinging report against the sitting HC judge. The report forwarded to Allahabad HC CJ D B Bhosale found sufficient substance in the allegations. It further stated that the irregularities on his part were serious enough to initiate removal.
CJI Dipak Misra had set up the in-house committee on December 8 last year. The committee inquired about Justice Shukla’s role in the case. Orissa HC ex-judge I M Quddusi was questioned and then arrested. The irregularity by the HC judge led to a CBI probe into the medical scam.
Now as the findings of the committee show him guilty, chances of the Allahabad HC judge being booked look brighter.