HON’BLE JUSTICE RAJUL BHARGAVA

Hon'ble Justice Rajul Bhargava was born on 18th November 1958. He graduated in science in the year 1978 and later on, Law in the year 1982 from Campus Law Centre, University of Delhi. He enrolled as an Advocate on 27th May 1982 with the Uttar Pradesh Bar Council. His realm of practice was mainly Constitutional and criminal, and was appointed as a senior advocate in 2015. Afterward, he took an oath as an Additional Judge on 15th November 2016. Later on, as a Permanent Judge on 23rd March 2018. He was appointed as an additional judge by the President of India for the tenure of two years. There are several significant judgements passed by him which, are as follows:

On 1st February 2017, The Allahabad High Court had asked the Centre and the Army to file their responses on the petition filed by the wife of a soldier, who transferred to the military hospital for "destructive behavior"". It occurred days after he shared a video on social media complaining about lower rank personnel allegedly being made to do degrading duties. In the video, Lance Naik had claimed that jawans posted as "sahayaks" were made to wash clothes and polish the shoes of officers. A division bench comprising of Justices Arun Tandon and Rajul Bhargava passed the order on the petition of Richa Singh, whose husband Lance Naik Yagya Pratap Singh was shifted to a military hospital in Bareilly in January.

Richa Singh, who hails from Rewa district in the neighborhood state of Madhya Pradesh, has claimed that her husband was "being harassed by senior officials for raising his voice against maltreatment" by superiors. She claimed that her husband was mentally fit and demanded that directions should be issued for his release from the hospital. She also asked for an inquiry to be ordered into the charges of abuse of the "sahayak" (orderly) system as leveled by Lance Naik. On January 15th, addressing a function organized on the occasion of Army Day, General Bipin Rawat had warned that those using social media to air their grievances could face disciplinary action.

The Allahabad High Court prevents Mukhtar Ansari from voting in the Rajya Sabha polls. It happened after a petition filed by BSP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha Member, S. Sansitpat, a renowned Supreme Court lawyer, Satish Chandra Mishra in the Allahabad High Court for the release of two MLAs Mukhtar Ansari of BSP and Hariom Yadav of Samajwadi Party (SP) so that they could participate in voting. 

Ansari is the prime accused in the murder of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Krishnanand Rai, among other crimes, and has pleaded not guilty. Justice Rajul Bhargava issued the order on an appeal filed by the Uttar Pradesh government, challenging the March 20 order of the Ghazipur court. Ansari, through the prison authorities, had written a letter to the special judge in Ghazipur requesting that he should be permitted to cast his vote in the Rajya Sabha elections. The high court, staying the earlier order of the Ghazipur court which had allowed the mafia don-turned-politician to vote in polls on Friday, issued notice to Mr. Ansari, who is lodged in the Banda jail on charges of attempt to murder and conspiracy. State's counsel AK Sound and Vikas Sahay had appealed in the High Court that the Ghazipur court had taken a biased view on the matter without even acknowledging the Representation of the People Act's section 62 (5). The high court in its order, citing the Anukul Chandra Pradhan case heard by the Supreme Court, noted that the Rajya Sabha polls are also connected with this section of the electoral law and hence Ansari cannot ask for the right to vote as it was not a fundamental right.