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CJI sends notice to High Court judge over 15-lakh scam

NEW DELHI: The Chief Justice of India, Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, has slapped a show-cause notice on Justice Nirmal Yadav of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, indicted by a three-member in-house committee that probed allegations against her for allegedly receiving Rs.15 lakh.

A committee comprising Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Hemant Laxman Gokhale, Gujarat High Court Chief Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Madan B. Lokur of the Delhi High Court was constituted by the CJI to probe the scam and the judge proceeded on leave. The committee, an internal mechanism evolved by the judiciary, was asked to inquire into the serious charges of corruption that had come to the surface involving a High Court judge and to give its findings on the veracity of the allegations.

The committee, which submitted its report to the CJI after a detailed probe, had concluded that there was prima facie truth in the allegations and said that her action was unbecoming of a judge and amounted to impropriety and misconduct.

Under the in-house procedure if the committee finds that there is substance in the allegations, the CJI is empowered to advise the judge concerned to resign or seek voluntary retirement or take any other suitable action.

Highly placed sources told The Hindu on Monday that a copy of the report had been sent to Justice Nirmal Yadav and show-cause notice issued seeking her explanation.

The CJI had earlier asked the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, to also ask for a CBI investigation into the alleged scam in which Haryana’s Additional Advocate-General Sanjeev Bansal and three others were arrested and the CBI had taken up the investigation. The in-house committee’s probe was independent of the CBI investigation, which is still pending.

Justice Yadav was named by Mr. Bansal in his statement to the police. Mr. Bansal was arrested after Justice Nirmaljit Kaur of the Punjab and Haryana High Court informed the police about attempted delivery of Rs.15 lakh (allegedly meant for Justice Yadav) at her house erroneously by Mr. Bansal’s clerk Parkash Ram.

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