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CBI gets nod to prosecute retired Allahabad HC judge in corruption case
The has received permission to prosecute justice Shri Narayan Shukla, now retired, of the Allahabad HC in a corruption scandal.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has received permission to prosecute justice Shri Narayan Shukla, now retired, of the Allahabad high court in the corruption scandal involving Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
The sanction enables the agency to submit its charge sheet in court detailing the charges and evidence against Shukla in the case where bribes were allegedly paid to secure a favourable court order by the institute.
Shukla, who retired from the service in July 2020, is accused of taking a bribe for passing an order that favoured the Lucknow-based medical college, which was disbarred in May 2017 from admitting students by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the country’s medical education regulator.
HT was first to report on November 12 that the federal anti-corruption agency’s request for prosecution sanction against Shukla was pending. A senior CBI officer, without divulging the exact date, confirmed that the Centre’s sanction was recently communicated to the agency.
Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act bars the trial court from taking judicial note of a charge sheet filed against a public servant unless the government has granted its sanction for prosecution.
Shukla was investigated for criminal conspiracy, sections of the prevention of corruption act which deal with accepting bribes, and criminal misconduct along with retired Odisha high court judge IM Quddusi, Bhagwan Prasad Yadav, and Palash Yadav of Prasad Education Trust, an intermediary, Bhawana Pandey and another alleged middleman Sudhir Giri.
A charge sheet was filed in July 2019 against Quddusi in a separate case pertaining to Prasad Institute. He is currently out on bail.
A second officer, requesting anonymity, said the agency examined several people in the past two years to conclude its investigation and added that there is strong evidence against all the accused persons.
According to CBI, the Lucknow-based medical college was debarred by MCI from admitting students for academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 due to substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of required criteria along with 46 other medical colleges.
The MCI decision was initially challenged by Prasad Institute before the Supreme Court. CBI’s FIR said a conspiracy was hatched and the petition was withdrawn from the top court, and a writ petition was filed before the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on August 24, 2017.
It added that Quddusi and BP Yadav of Prasad Trust met justice Shukla on the morning of August 25, 2017, at his residence in Lucknow, which is when the bribe is believed to have been exchanged. CBI alleged the petition was heard the same day by the division bench of the high court comprising justice SN Shukla and a favourable order was passed.
Former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra ordered an investigation against Shukla on a complaint by Uttar Pradesh advocate general Raghvendra Singh alleging judicial malpractice. A three-member committee comprising then Madras high court chief justice Indira Banerjee, then Sikkim high court chief justice SK Agnihotri and Madhya Pradesh high court judge PK Jaiswal, found Shukla guilty of judicial irregularities in January 2018 after which his impeachment was recommended to the President of India.
Shukla, who was a sitting judge at the Lucknow bench of Allahabad HC at the time, was debarred from entering the court premises and all the judicial and administrative work was taken away from him.
Later, in July 2019, former CJI Ranjan Gogoi gave permission to CBI to file a case in the matter. Gogoi also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending Shukla’s removal. Shukla eventually retired in July 2020.
