Impeachment proceedings were recommended against Justice Shri Narayan Shukla after inquiry found substance in charge of judicial impropriety against him.
New Delhi: A little over a fortnight from now, a judge of the Allahabad high court will complete a year of being paid to do nothing.
The judge, Shri Narayan Shukla, whose impeachment was recommended to the Narendra Modi government last year after an in-house inquiry found substance in a charge of judicial impropriety against him, has been without work since 23 January 2018.
However, even as the penultimate session of the 16th Lok Sabha draws to a close — the Winter Session of Parliament is scheduled to end on 8 January — the Modi government is yet to show any inclination to put in motion the process to impeach the judge.
No move to impeach yet
In August 2018, Minister of State for Law and Justice P.P. Chaudhary had told the Lok Sabha that while the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had said sent a communication to the government with regard to impeaching the judge, Justice Shukla had also sent a “representation” to the government.
Chaudhary, however, did not elaborate what the representation was about.
The central government has done little to process the then CJI’s recommendation. To begin with, as per procedure, the government should have started collecting signatures of at least 100 Lok Sabha or 50 Rajya Sabha members on a motion to begin impeachment proceedings.
ThePrint has learnt that no such move has been initiated so far.
“We have no idea if this government actually wants to impeach him. If it was committed to rooting out corruption from the judiciary, the least it could have done was start collecting signatures of MPs to bring the requisite motion in either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha,” said an opposition MP.
“But nothing of this sort has happened yet and as things stand now, the judge may actually get away, at least till the general elections.”
Case against Justice Shukla
In January last year, an in-house committee headed by then Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee had found Justice Shukla guilty of judicial impropriety. Justice Shukla, the committee found, had gone out of his way to arbitrarily provide relief to medical colleges debarred by the central government from admitting students for two years (2017-18 and 2018-19).
After the committee’s report, then CJI Misra recommended his impeachment in a letter to the President.
The matter was connected to the case which was investigated by the CBI and in which former Orissa High Court judge I.M. Quddusi and some middlemen had been arrested for their alleged involvement in attempts to “buy relief” from the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court.
The case handled by Justice Shukla’s bench was also part of the impeachment motion moved by opposition MPs against CJI Misra.
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