New Delhi, Dec 16 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday filed a charge sheet against retired Allahabad High Court judge S.N. Shukla in connection with medical institute admission corruption case.
The CBI had, in November, got sanction to proceed against him.
A case was filed by the CBI in December 2019 against Justice Shukla, the a sitting justice of Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, Chhattisgarh High Court’s retired Chief Justice I.M. Quddusi, Bhawana Pandey, Bhagwan Prasad Yadav, and Palash Yadav of the Prasad Education Trust and others in connection with medical institute admission corruption case.
As per the FIR, the Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences was not fulfilling the required criteria for facilities, and was thus stopped by the government against admitting medical students.
“This happened in 2017. The government debarred 46 other medical colleges on the same grounds. The trust challenged this before the apex court. They later withdrew the petition. But they moved a fresh plea before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court. A day after their move, their plea was heard by the division bench comprising of Justice Shukla. The bench passed a order in the favour of the trust. Shukla received illegal gratification by the Institute for this favourable order,” said a CBI official.
Justice Quddusi was earlier booked in a related matter.
The CBI said that the charge sheet was filed under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
A CBI official said that after registering the case, they had searched the house of the suspects, including the judges, and recovered incriminating documents from there.
The then Chief Justice of India wrote to Prime Minister requesting him to initiate a motion in the Parliament to remove Justice Shukla and give the case to the CBI. This letter was written in July 2019 whereas the CBI lodged a case in December 2019.
The apex court had also initiated an in-house inquiry, and its report said that Justice Shukla should be removed from his post as he was found involved in judicial irregularities.
Before this in 2018, a former Chief Justice of India had asked Shukla to resign, and if he did not wish too, he could take voluntary retirement.
In 2018, a committee comprising then Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, Sikkim High Court Chief Justice S.K. Agnihotri and MP High Court’s Justice P.K. Jaiswal probed the matter and found that there was merit in the allegations levelled against Shukla.
–IANS
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