Tag: Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi

AG Denies Consent to Initiate Contempt Proceedings Against Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi

The former CJI and Rajya Sabha lawmaker reportedly said that the judiciary is “ramshackled” and it is quite unlikely for a person to get a timely verdict.

New Delhi: Attorney general for India K.K. Venugopal has refused to grant sanction to initiate contempt proceedings against former Chief Justice of India (CJI) and Rajya Sabha lawmaker Ranjan Gogoi for his alleged statements against the apex judiciary.

Activist Saket Gokhale had sought consent, a condition precedent for initiating criminal contempt proceedings, of the topmost law officer to initiate the case against the former CJI, who had reportedly said at an event that the judiciary is “ramshackled” and it is quite unlikely for a person to get a timely verdict.

Also read: Why the SC Order Closing the Case on Conspiracy Against Ex CJI Ranjan Gogoi Is Disappointing

“I had the occasion to watch the entirety of the interview. It is obvious that all that has been said was good for the institution and will not [in] any manner scandalise the court or lower its authority in the eyes of law,” Venugopal said in his letter to the activist, denying consent for initiating the proceedings.

Venugopal said that though the ex-CJI’s statements were strong, they reflected his views on the ills of the judiciary.

The plea, seeking consent to initiate contempt proceedings against the nominated Rajya Sabha MP, had specifically referred to the statements of justice Gogoi, who had said, “You want a 5 trillion dollar economy, but you have a ramshackled judiciary…if you were to go to court, you would only be washing your dirty linen in court. You won’t get a verdict. I have no hesitation in saying it.”

Under the Contempt of Courts Act and the rules, the consent of attorney general or the solicitor general is required for filing of a criminal contempt case by a private individual.

CBI Raids Offices of Allahabad HC Judge Narayan Shukla in PIMS Bribery Case

Justice Shukla and Odisha high court judge I.M. Quddusi have been named as the prime accused in the medical college bribery scandal and have been booked for criminal conspiracy.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted raids in the offices of sitting Allahabad high court judge Shri Narayan Shukla after the agency filed a case against him for allegedly accepting a bribe to give a favourable order to one Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Lucknow.

Ever since the medical college bribery scandal hit the news in May 2017, the Union government barred PIMS from admitting any more students. Now Justice Shukla has been named as the prime accused in the case along with retired Odisha high court judge I.M. Quddusi, who was arrested in September 2017. Four other middlemen, including Bhawana Pandey and Bhagwan Prasad, were also arrested in the matter.

The CBI searched the residences of Justice Shukla in Lucknow, Justice Quddusi in Delhi and five other places, including one in Meerut. It claimed that its team found many incriminating documents related to their investments. Both Shukla and Quddusi have been booked for criminal conspiracy and various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Case history

Shukla may soon be in the line of arrests and that would be one of the few cases in which a sitting judge will be under custody. Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in July this year gave the CBI a green light to initiate proceedings against Shukla. Gogoi has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending Shukla’s removal after an in-house committee – comprising the then Madras high court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee, then Sikkim high court Chief Justice SK Agnihotri and Madhya Pradesh high court judge P.K. Jaiswal – found him guilty of judicial irregularities in January 2018.

Since the beginning, the medical college bribery case appeared to have opened a Pandora’s box. In January 2018, advocate Prashant Bhushan had written a complaint to the five senior-most puisne Supreme Court judges had demanded an investigation against former CJI Dipak Misra, and senior judges of the Allahabad high court and Supreme Court.

Also read: Five Senior Judges of Supreme Court Urged to Set Up Probe Against Chief Justice

Before that, some leaked telephonic conversations indicated intense lobbying between middlemen and senior judicial functionaries of the Supreme Court and Allahabad high court to secure favourable judgements for the Prasad Education Trust-run Glocal Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital and Research Centre. These medical colleges were banned by the Union government.

File photo of the Allahabad high court. Credit: PTI

The Allahabad high court. Photo: PTI

The transcripts revealed that illegal money amounting to crores may have been exchanged between middlemen, the medical college and judicial functionaries. Bhushan alleged that a probe must be initiated against Misra as he headed all the benches that had given favourable judgments to the college in hearings that lasted from August to September 2017.

After the CBI found evidence, it secured a probe order against Shukla and Quddusi. However, Justice Misra has not been named by the CBI for any alleged wrongdoing.

Interestingly, the in-house probe against Justice Shukla was ordered by Misra himself in November 2017 on a complaint by Uttar Pradesh advocate general Raghvendra Singh.

Justice Quddusi was arrested by the CBI in September 2017 for the same charges – demanding and accepting a bribe from PIMS in lieu of a favourable order.

The Hindustan Times reported that the CBI FIR says that PIMS was debarred for substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of required criteria along with 46 other medical colleges. However, it through a series of motivated writ petitions, that PIMS secured a favourable order from Justice Shukla, who is said to have taken a bribe. PIMS personnel and Shukla, according to the FIR, met through Quddusi, who was a common connection.

The FIR also says that when Shukla’s order was challenged by the Medical Council of India at the Supreme Court, the matter was listed before a bench of the CJI Misra and two more judges. It adds that since the matter was in the apex court, one B.P. Yadav of PIMS  “pursued with I.M. Quddusi and Bhawana Pandey to get back the bribe paid to Justice Shri Narayan Shukla”.

“Quddusi further contacted Shukla for return of the illegal gratification earlier paid to him and part of it was returned,” said the CBI FIR.