Following an unprecedented judicial decision, on 23rd Sept’08, by a division bench of Supreme Court (SC) headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been entrusted with investigation against 10 serving district judges, seven sitting high court judges and one sitting SC judges for getting favors in the Ghaziabad Court Treasury scam. The investigation will also encompass six retired high court judges and two retired district judges.
The scam involves siphoning off crores of rupees (millions of dollars) from the employees provident fund between 1995 and 2001. FIR had been filed against as many as 82 lower court staff of Ghaziabad. The money so defalcated were allegedly used in part to give gifts of air conditioners, furniture and other house hold items to their superiors by the accused staff members.
Uttar Pradesh Police investigation was handicapped by an earlier supreme court order restraining them from filing FIR against sitting judges without a written permission from the chief justice. Justice Arijit Pasayat directed the CBI to take over the case from Uttar Pradesh Police. The bench directed the CBI to submit its report in three months.
The bench also clarified that restriction on filing FIR is applicable to sitting judges only and not the retired judges. The court further said that after getting CBI report it would decide the matter of registering FIR against the sitting judges.
The order came after hearing arguments in a public interest plea filed by two lawyers of the Ghaziabad bar association, who were seeking CBI investigation on the long pending case.
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