The Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi permitted the CBI to file a corruption case against sitting Allahabad High Court judge, Justice SN Shukla.
In 2017, Shukla was found guilty by a panel of Judges of granting favours to a private medical college.
This is the first time that a sitting judge will be probed by the CBI. Earlier, the central agency had written to the CJI for permission to investigate the High Court judge as an incumbent judge cannot be charged without the top judge's nod.
In 2018, the-then CJI Dipak Misra asked Shukla to resign which the latter declined and thus, judicial work was withdrawn from the latter. Even last month, CJI Gogoi also wrote to PM Narendra Modi for a motion in parliament to impeach Shukla.
On a complaint against Shukla in 2017, CJI Misra had set up a judicial panel to probe whether Shukla, in violation of an SC order, granted favours to a medical college by extending the deadline for admission of students.
It was alleged that Shukla had made handwritten changes in his own bench's order, following the SC barring the Allahabad HC from allowing the GCRG Institute of Medical Science in Lucknow to admit students for the 2017-18 session.
The college was banned by the government from admissions after a report cited them having 'poor infrastructure'. The revised HC order was struck down by the apex court after an appeal by the Medical Council of India.
The judicial panel concluded that the allegations against Shukla were strong 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".