Patna, July 21: Patna High Court has terminated the services of Siwan fast-track court judge A.P. Shrivastava, who allowed Mohammad Shahabuddin to attend Parliament for being sworn in despite the superior court’s rejection of the Rashtriya Janata Dal MP’s bail application.

It is not clear if Shrivastava, in his May 28 order, “exceeded” his brief under pressure to grant permission to the Bihar MP who is facing a number of criminal charges.

Sources said the judge could have taken cue from an earlier instance a few years ago when Shahabuddin was allowed to participate in a vote of no-confidence against the government of the day.

The high court has also directed the CBI to probe why the controversial MP was allowed to visit Delhi. The directive came after a standing committee of the court, comprising seven judges, examined the matter and opined that Shrivastava’s act was arbitrary and illegal.

The committee felt that despite the high court’s directives, the Siwan judge went out of his way to order that the jailed MP should be shifted to hospital for treatment. On the high court’s order, the Siwan MP has since been sent back to jail.

Shahabuddin has claimed that he suffers from a slipped disc, which is why he needed treatment in a hospital. The MP is in custody in connection with the murder of a local CPI(ML) worker, though this is only one of the cases he is facing.

MP surrender order

Judicial action against “tainted” politicians continued apace today with the Supreme Court ordering Prabhunath Singh to surrender before a trial court since he is wanted in more than 40 criminal cases.

Singh, a Janata Dal (United) MP from Bihar, had sought a stay on an arrest warrant issued by the Bhagalpur chief judicial magistrate in a murder case.

But a bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice C.K. Thakkar dismissed the MP’s plea, instead asking him to surrender before the Bhagalpur magistrate within 10 days and “face the process of law”. Singh has no option now but to surrender.