Priya Gour
Published on: 09August, 2022 at 19:04 IST
The Supreme Court bench of Justices UU Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat issued advice to the Patna High Court to drop the ongoing proceedings against a Bihar district judge, currently under suspension.
The apex court was hearing on a plea moved by Shashi Kant Rai, an Additional Sessions Judge from Bihar, challenging his suspension orders passed by Patna High Court in February 2022.
About the matter:
The petitioner-judge had earlier written to the High Court for being considered for promotion, restoring seniority basis. However, he was issued show cause notice and later suspended him without being given any reasons.
The petitioner had convicted and sentenced a man to life imprisonment for sexual assault of a minor after a single day hearing in November 2021, post which he received death threats. Similar conviction and sentence of death after a four days hearing had also been made by the judge.
The proceedings without any action and suspended had caused trauma to the petitioner.
According to Rule 6 (7) of the Bihar Judicial Service (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules of 2020, in absence of any charge sheet, the suspension has to be revoked.
The Court was of the view that dropping the proceedings shall be in the interests of everyone involved in the case. The proceedings against the Araria POCSO Judge would send a wrong message, the apex court mentioned.
“Our sincere advice is drop everything. If you don’t want to, we’ll go threadbare into it. Unless you’re alleging corruption, there has to be something glaring. He’s only following up on his orders, extremely unfair on him…It sends a bad message to others, who are otherwise efficient.”
The petitioner’s counsel submitted that the judge was willing to submit a statement to the High Court rebutting the charges against him.
However, the counsel appearing for the said that the High Court shall decide anything only after considering the entire issue.
Justice Bhatt remarked that,“There shouldn’t be over zealousness to punish.”
The petitioner has been directed by the Court to submit his statement by August 15. The next hearing hence is set up for August 18.