BREAKING | CBI Court Acquits Justice Nirmal Yadav Booked For Receiving ₹15L Cash While Serving At Punjab & Haryana HC In 2008

A Special CBI Court in Chandigarh today acquitted Justice Nirmal Yadav, booked for receiving Rs. 15 lakh cash while serving as a Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in 2008.

Special CBI judge Alka Malik pronounced the verdict.

In 2008, a peon of then sitting judge of Punjab & Haryana Court Justice Nirmaljit Kaur filed a complaint that a bag of Rs.15 lakh cash was delivered at her Court, who was later apprehended after the judge asked to catch him. The case was transferred to CBI and according to the prosecution, the bag was meant to be delivered to Justice Nirmal Yadav's residence.

In January 2009 the CBI sought for an approval to prosecute Justice Yadav; the high court granted the sanction in November 2010.

Justice Yadav unsuccessfully challenged the CBI's request for sanction.

In March 2011 the President of India's office approved the sanction. Pursuant to this, the central agency filed a chargesheet. During this time, Justice Yadav was transferred to Uttarakhand High Court in February 2010 and went on to retire in March 2011.

Yadav had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions to quash the proceedings against her but didn't succeeded. Later, she approached the apex court challenging High Court's order. She contented that it is a case of no evidence and the trial court should be restrained from framing charges against her. But the Apex court was not satisfied and dismissed the plea.

The Supreme Court in 2014 dismissed Yadav's plea for a stay on proceedings of trial court and pulled her up for adopting strategies to delay the proceedings. A bench headed by Justice H L Dattu had indicated that the former judge, by filing multiple petitions in various courts, played tactics to delay the trial court proceedings in the 2008 case.

Special CBI court Judge Vimal Kumar framed charges against Yadav in 2014 under Section 11 of the Prevention of Corruption Act and four others under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 120-B.

In the trial, although prosecution referred to 84 witnesses however only 69 were stated to be examined. Subsequently in February this year, the high court permitted the central agency to re-examine 10 witnesses and asked the trial court to ensure that unnecessary adjournments are not granted.

The matter was reserved for verdict on Thursday (March 27).

S.K. Garg Narwana and Shri V.G. Narwana, Advocate represented Justice Nirmal Yadav