A special CBI judge, who had acquitted Railway minister Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi in a disproportionate assets case, has landed in trouble with Patna High Court directing the Bihar government to stop payment of his full pension on the charge of judicial misconduct pending departmental proceedings.Acting Chief Justice of Patna High Court C K Prasad directed the state government to withhold payment of full pension to former CBI judge, Patna, Muni Lal, on the recommendation of the HC standing committee last week after preliminary inquiries into the charges levelled against him were prima facie found to be true by Patna district judge as also the inspecting HC judge for the district.“The Bihar government has no option but to honour the HC directive and we have done that,” Advocate General P K Shahi said.“The government has to accept the order unless there are sufficient reasons on the contrary...In this case, no such reasons apparently exist”, he said.The former special CBI judge, Shahi said, would be entitled to 90 per cent of his pension amount pending disposal of departmental proceedings against him under clause 43(b) of Bihar pension rules applicable to all former state government employees.The inspecting judge of the High Court for Patna district Shivkirti Singh had found Lal guilty of “judicial misconduct” in grant of bail in two cases related to alleged rape and threats for transfer of land. FIR in both cases were registered in 2006.
