Suspended senior civil judge moved the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of an ED money laundering case. Listed on January 20, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani recused, and the matter was later placed before Justice Manoj Jain for consideration later.
NEW DELHI: A suspended senior civil judge has filed a plea with the Delhi High Court, requesting the dismissal of a money laundering case initiated against her by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Initially listed for a hearing on January 20, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani recused himself from the case. Subsequently, it was brought before Justice Manoj Jain though the judge did not preside over the Bench that day.
In 2016, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the civil judge, who was then serving at Delhi’s Tiz Hazari courts, on bribery allegations. The judge was accused of accepting a bribe from an advocate designated as a local commissioner in a case before her, demanding the payment in exchange for issuing a favorable ruling for a litigant.
The CBI executed a trap operation in 2016, reportedly apprehending the judge, her husband, and the court commissioner while accepting the bribe, with money recovered from her residence. According to the CBI, the local commissioner instructed the litigant to pay Rs 20 lakhs in installments as bribes to the judge, and the seized money was allegedly one such installment.
All involved were arrested and subsequently released on bail. The judge was later suspended, and in 2022, she was also implicated in a disproportionate assets case by the CBI. The ED’s current case is connected to the CBI’s bribery investigation from 2016.
In 2024, the ED opened a money laundering case related to this incident. In October of that year, a trial court in Delhi summoned the suspended judge regarding the money laundering charges. The judge has since challenged these proceedings in the High Court, claiming that the trial court’s order was issued in violation of Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which stipulates that no cognizance of an offense shall be taken without giving the accused an opportunity to be heard.
The petition asserts,
“The learned Trial Court has passed in the impugned order dated 22.10.2024 in a slip shod manner, without considering the mandate of law provided under Section 223 of the BNNS,”
Additionally, the judge is seeking a stay or postponement of the trial in the ED case until the High Court resolves her petition.
The petition further states,
“In case the further proceedings before the learned Trial Court are not stayed and the learned Trial Court proceeds further, the purpose of filing the present petition will be defeated and the present petition would become infructuous,”.
The next hearing is scheduled for March 9.
Senior Advocate Vikas Pahwa has represented the suspended civil judge in this case.
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