Bhubaneswar: When the stumbling on of a massive cash horde at sitting Delhi HC Judge Justice Yashwant Sharma is fresh in memory, the nation will witness the final verdict on another cash scandal (cash at Judge's Door) in Indan Judiciary on March 29, after a long wait of a long 17 years.

Additional Sessions Judge Alka Malik of Chandigarh Special court after hearing the final arguments in the case of Nirmal Yadav Vs CBI on Thursday reserved her verdict. But the court said that the judgment will be delivered on March 29.

WHAT IS THIS CASH SCANDAL?

This cash scandal hit the national headlines when an FIR was registered by the Chandigarh Police on August 16, 2008.

According to the FIR,

“On August 13, 2008, around 8:30 pm, an incident occurred at the camp office of Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur in Chandigarh. Amrik Singh, the office camp peon, received a visit from Prakash Munshi, who handed him a plastic bag claiming it contained papers from Delhi. Without checking the contents, Amrik Singh took the bag inside and informed Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur, who instructed him to check the bag. Upon opening it, Amrik Singh found currency notes inside. Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur scolded Amrik Singh and asked him to catch the person who had brought the bag.”

“Amrik Singh, along with Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur and Guard Guruvinder Singh, apprehended Prakash Munshi and called the police, who arrived and took Munshi and the currency notes into custody. Subsequently, the investigation was transferred to the CBI and upon completion of the same, chargesheet was filed. The Special Court framed charges against the accused. As per the prosecution, the said amount of Rs. 15 lakhs being delivered by a clerk of former Haryana Additional Advocate General Sanjeev Bansal, was meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav, instead of Justice Nirmaljeet Kaur.”

After the Cash at Door incident, Since the matter pertains to allegations against a sitting High Court Judge, the then Chief Justice of India, constituted a three members committee comprising of Justice H.L.Gokhale, the then Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, the then Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court and Justice Madan B.Lokur, the then Judge of Delhi High Court, in terms of In-House procedure adopted by Supreme Court on 7.5.1997. 

On the basis of evidence and material before it, the Committee of drew an inference that the money delivered at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur was in fact meant for Justice Nirmal Yadav.

In fact, the case was transferred to CBI, pursuant to a DO letter dated 26.8.2008 from the then Governor of Punjab and Administrator of UT, Chandigarh, General (retd) SF Rodrigues

TWIST IN THE CASE

Even after that , in the year 2009, the CBI has filed a closure report in the case. The only reason for filing the closure report by the CBI was declining of sanction for prosecution.

CBI cited the following facts at a special court. 

• That as Mrs. Justice Nirmal Yadav was a sitting Judge of the  High Court of Punjab and Haryana Chandigarh, request was made to the Secretary (Personnel), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Govt. of India, New Delhi for obtaining prosecution sanction from the President of India in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. 
• Vide letter D.O.No.2286/LS Office/09 dated 7.12.2009 of Shri D.R.Meena, Secretary Ministry of Law and Justice, Department of Legal Affairs, New Delhi addressed to Director, CBI, the sanction for prosecution has been declined on the grounds that after analysis of the available evidence
• the Ld. Attorney General of India has observed that. "there is not a shred of evidence with the said alleged offences were committed by Sanjiv Bansal, Ravinder Singh and Nirmal Singh in conspiracy with Justice Yadav" and that "the matter had been discussed with the CJI, who had observed that no action was required for the present.
• In 2010, Justice Yadav was transferred to Uttarakhand High Court, where she retired a year later. The same year a charge sheet was filed against her and others.

ANOTHER TWIST

Closure report was examined by the Special Judge (CBI Court), Chandigarh. On examination, the Special Judge refused to accept the closure report and directed the CBI to conduct further investigation. CBI carried out further investigation and approached the competent authority for grant of sanction for prosecution.

The competent authority i.e. the President of India 1.3.2011 granted sanction for prosecution of.Justice Nirmal yadav under section 19 of PC Act for commission of offence punishable under section 11 of the PC Act and other offences on March 1, 2011.

FACTS THEREOF

•  In 2014, the Special Court framed charges against five accused.
• One of the main accused, Bansal died in December 2016 at Max Hospital, Mohali.
• Consequently, the proceedings against him were dropped in January 2017.

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