Judge took Rs 15 lakh as bribe, reveals RTI

Chandigarh: Punjab judge Justice Nirmal Yadav, now a judge of the Uttrakhand High Court is in the dock once again.

Two months after she was given a clean chit in a bribery case by the Supreme Court and the Central Government, a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Hindustan Times reveals that Punjab Governor and Chandigarh administrator General S F Rodrigues had had brought to the notice of the then Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur of Punjab and Haryana High Court in August 2008 that Justice Nirmal Yadav, a sitting High Court judge, had been paid Rs 15 lakh as bribe.

Yadav was implicated in the cash-at-door scandal when the Chandigarh police reported that a parcel containing Rs 15 lakh intended for Nirmal Yadav was mistakenly handed over to Justice Nirmaljit Kaur.

Justice Yadav was then a judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Gokhale committee constituted by Supreme Court too had had found that a case is made out against Yadav.

However, the Attorney General Goolam E Vahanvati had later denied sanction to prosecute Yadav saying there was not enough grounds for a case.

The coming out clean of Justice Yadav.despite concurrent findings by three agencies has confused the jurists.

Special public prosecutor Anupam Gupta said, “The case of Justice Yadav is a copybook example of the miscarriage and double standards that pervades the Indian judicial system.”

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