With no judicial work since 2018, Allahabad HC judge booked by CBI retires today

The Allahabad High Court's judge Justice Narayan Shukla, indicted by an in-house inquiry committee for misconduct and whose removal was recommended by the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra in February 2018 and later booked by CBI, retired today. He wasn't assigned any work since February 2018 following his refusal to resign.

Justice Shukla was under the scanner for allegedly granting permission to a private medical college to admit students despite a ban by the Medical Council of India being in place, as well as the Supreme Court forbidding such admissions from de-licensed private medical colleges. He had also made unilateral changes to an order passed by the bench headed by him, in his own handwriting, without even bothering to consult the other judge on the bench.

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Acting on the report submitted by the in-house inquiry panel, the then CJI Dipak Misra, in terms of Clause 7(ii) of the in-house Supreme Court Resolution of 1997, wrote on February 02, 2018 to the President of India, with a copy marked to the Prime Minister, seeking Justice Shukla's removal from office. Before approaching the President, the CJI even advised the concerned judge to resign, but he refused to do so.

CJI Dipak Misra then advised the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court not to assign any judicial work to the concerned judge. Since then the judge, though was in office, had been divested of any judicial work.

Within a matter of days of the then CJI Misra, writing to the President of India (on February 2, 2018) recommending removal proceedings against Justice Narayan Shukla, the latter too shot off a letter (on February 8, 2018) to the President in response to CJI's correspondence. 

It was learnt that in his letter, Justice Shukla had questioned proceedings of in-house inquiry committee. The committee probing Justice Shukla comprised Justice Indira Banerjee, then-chief justice of the Madras High Court and now a Supreme Court judge Justice S.K. Agnihotri, then Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court, and Justice P.K. Jaiswal, the then judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and currently posted at Allahabad High Court.

Again on June 23, 2019, the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi wrote to the Prime Minister to initiate a motion for the removal of Justice Shukla.

In December 2019, after getting the nod from the CJI Ranjan Gogoi, the CBI had booked him in a corruption case for allegedly favouring a medical college and carried out searches at his Lucknow residence.

Justice Shukla was appointed as judge of the Allahabad High Court on October 5, 2005.