The administrative committee of the Allahabad High Court has suspended Justice Om Prakash Mishra for granting bail to former Uttar Pradesh minister Gayatri Prajapati, who is an accused in a gangrape case.
All powers of the Additional District and Sessions Court judge have also been seized by the court, after Chief Justice DB Bhonsle took a grim view of the bail granted to the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader by the judge.
Mishra was posted in the Protection of Child Sexual Offences (Pocso) Court in Lucknow. He is set to retire on 30 April. The high court Registrar General, DK Singh, confirmed the suspension of the judge on 29 April.
Indications of the impending action came during the hearing of a petition in the high court on Friday wherein the bail to the tainted minister was challenged by the Yogi Adityanath government.
Prajapati, a former minister in the former Akhilesh Yadav cabinet who held Mining and Transport portfolios, was accused of patronising illegal mining – a charge being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The former Amethi legislator, who was defeated in the March Assembly polls, was accused of raping a woman and attempting to rape her minor daughter.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)