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TMI Blog2019 (9) TMI 1716X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oved, but after moving the Lower Court first. The officer may have been guilty of negligence in the sense that he did not carefully go through the case file and did not take notice of the order of the High Court which was on his file. This negligence cannot be treated to be misconduct. After rejection of the bail application of the accused, two out of three accused moved the High Court. The High Court granted bail to one of the accused and the bail application of the other was rejected, not on merits but on the ground that he did not disclose the fact that he had earlier moved the High Court for grant of bail. This itself is clear indicator of the fact that probably even the order passed by the appellant is not an incorrect one. Coming to the second charge, which is under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to as the NDPS . On 18.07.2002 the appellant, a Special Judge, closed the evidence of the prosecution which resulted in material witnesses not being examined and consequently the accused was acquitted. As far as this allegation is concerned, the enquiry officer on the basis of the statements of two clerks of the Court has made l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... trol. Time and time again, this Court has laid down the criteria on which actions should be taken against judicial officers. Repeatedly, this Court has cautioned the High Courts that action should not be taken against judicial officers only because wrong orders are passed. To err is human and not one of us, who has held judicial office, can claim that we have never passed a wrong order. 4. No doubt, there has to be zero tolerance for corruption and if there are allegations of corruption, misconduct or of acts unbecoming a judicial officer, these must be dealt with strictly. However, if wrong orders are passed that should not lead to disciplinary action unless there is evidence that the wrong orders have been passed for extraneous reasons and not because of the reasons on the file. 5. We do not want to refer to too many judgments because this position has been laid down in a large number of cases but it would be pertinent to refer to the observations of this Court in Ishwar Chand Jain Vs. High Court of Punjab Haryana and another (1988) 3 SCC 370, wherein this Court held as follows: 14. Under the Constitution the High Court has control over the subordinate judiciary. Whil ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... devotion to duty or that he has been actuated by any corrupt motive. At best he may say that the view taken by the appellant is not proper or correct and not attribute any motive to him which is for extraneous consideration that he had acted in that manner. If in every case where an order of a subordinate court is found to be faulty a disciplinary action were to be initiated, the confidence of the subordinate judiciary will be shaken and the officers will be in constant fear of writing a judgment so as not to face a disciplinary enquiry and thus judicial officers cannot act independently or fearlessly. Indeed the words of caution are given in K.K. Dhawan case and A.N. Saxena case that merely because the order is wrong or the action taken could have been different does not warrant initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the judicial officer. In spite of such caution, it is unfortunate that the High Court has chosen to initiate disciplinary proceedings against the appellant in this case. 7. In Ramesh Chander Singh Vs. High Court of Allahabad Anr. (2007) 4 SCC 247, a three-judge Bench of this Court, after considering the entire law on the subject, including the authoriti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be placed on record during the course of disciplinary proceedings. 9. Coming to the facts of this case there are two charges against the appellant, who was a judicial officer. The charges are as follows: CHARGE-1 You, Sri Krishna Prasad Verma while functioning as Additional Distt. Sessions Judge, Chapra granted bail to M/s Bishwanath Rai, Sheo Nath Rai and Pradeep Rai on 11.7.2002 in S.T. No.514 of 2001 arising out of Chapra (M) Khatra P.S. Case No.453/2000 registered U/s 302/34 I.P.C. notwithstanding the fact that the bail petitions of Bishwanath Rai was earlier rejected by this Hon'ble Court vide order dated 27.3.2001 and 4.7.2001 passed in Cr. Misc. No.34144/2000 and 15626/2001 respectively, that of Sheo Nath Rai vide order 13.2.2001 and 26.11.2001 passed in Cr. Misc. No.3387/2001 and Cr. Misc. No.30563/2001 respectively and that of Pradeep Rai vide order dated 28.2.2001 passed in Cr.Misc. No.3599/2001. The aforesaid act on your part is indicative of some extraneous consideration which tantamounts to gross judicial impropriety, judicial indiscipline, lack of integrity, gross misconduct and an act unbecoming of a Judicial Officer. CHARGE-2 You, Sr ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... it was brought to the notice of the appellant that he had not taken note of the order of the High Court while granting bail on 11.07.2002. Thereafter, he issued notice to all the three accused on 23.08.2002 i.e. within less than two months and cancelled the bail granted to all the three accused on 11.07.2002. If he had made the mistake of not seeing the whole file, on that being brought to his notice, he corrected the mistake. After the appellant cancelled the bail and the accused were again arrested, they again applied for bail and this bail application was rejected by the appellant on 18.12.2002. 13. After rejection of the bail application of the accused, two out of three accused moved the High Court. The High Court granted bail to one of the accused and the bail application of the other was rejected, not on merits but on the ground that he did not disclose the fact that he had earlier moved the High Court for grant of bail. This itself is clear indicator of the fact that probably even the order passed by the appellant is not an incorrect one. 14. Coming to the second charge, which is under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (hereinafter referred to a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rict judiciary. 16. We would, however, like to make it clear that we are in no manner indicating that if a judicial officer passes a wrong order, then no action is to be taken. In case a judicial officer passes orders which are against settled legal norms but there is no allegation of any extraneous influences leading to the passing of such orders then the appropriate action which the High Court should take is to record such material on the administrative side and place it on the service record of the judicial officer concerned. These matters can be taken into consideration while considering career progression of the concerned judicial officer. Once note of the wrong order is taken and they form part of the service record these can be taken into consideration to deny selection grade, promotion etc., and in case there is a continuous flow of wrong or illegal orders then the proper action would be to compulsorily retire the judicial officer, in accordance with the Rules. We again reiterate that unless there are clear-cut allegations of misconduct, extraneous influences, gratification of any kind etc., disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated merely on the basis that a wron ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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