NEW DELHI, July 31 (Xinhua) -- For the first time in India's judicial history, Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has allowed the country's premier investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file a corruption case against a sitting high court judge, Justice S N Shukla, officials said Wednesday.
"Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday gave permission to CBI to file a case against Allahabad High Court's Justice Shri Narayan Shukla under the Prevention of Corruption Act," an official said.
Justice Shukla was found guilty by a panel of judges of granting favors to a private medical college in 2017.
"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 under reference," Chief Justice Gogoi was quoted as saying in his response to the CBI's request for permission to file a case against Shukla.
A case cannot be filed against a sitting judge without the permission of the chief justice of India, according to legal experts.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1991 that investigating agencies must show evidence to the chief justice before filing a case against a sitting judge of the top court or high courts.
This is the first time the chief justice of India has approved such a request and a sitting judge will be investigated by the CBI.
In January 2018, an in-house committee set up by Gogoi's predecessor, Dipak Misra, has found judicial irregularities in the Medical Council of India bribery case and asked Shukla to resign or retire voluntarily. However, Shukla did neither, following which Misra asked the chief justice of the Allahabad high court not to give him judicial work. Shukla then reportedly went on a long leave.
Last month Chief Justice Gogoi also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a motion in parliament to impeach Justice Shukla.
Justice Shukla is accused of granting favors to a medical college by extending the deadline for admission of students in violation of a Supreme Court order. There were allegations that Justice Shukla had made handwritten changes in his own bench's order, days after the Supreme Court barred the high court from allowing the Lucknow-based GCRG Institute of Medical Science to admit students for the 2017-18 session.
An in-house judges' panel probing Justice Shukhla concluded that there was sufficient substance in the allegations against Justice Shukla and he had "disgraced the values of judicial life, acted in a manner unbecoming of a judge to lower the majesty, dignity and credibility of his office."
The irregularity, said the panel, were "serious enough" for his removal.
Shukla joined the Allahabad High Court in 2005 and is scheduled to retire in July 2020.
