Compulsory Retirement For 12 District Judges After Jharkhand HC Notes ‘Dubious Conduct’

Twelve District Judges were compulsorily retired by the Jharkhand Government on Saturday on recommendation of the Jharkhand High Court.

“The judicial officers were marked by the High Court for their dubious conduct and, on the issue of probity, they were given compulsory retirement,” Secretary of Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department Nidhi Khare was quoted as saying.

Ms. Khare added that the Judges have been given three months’ salary and reimbursements as compensation.

According to reports, the Judges who have been compulsorily retired include District and Additional Sessions Judges Anil Kumar Singh (Lohardaga), Girish Chandra Singh (Daltonganj), Girijest Kumar Dubey (Garhwa), Om Prakash Srivastav (Pakur), Rajesh Kumar Pandey (Latehar) and Umeshanand Mishra (Latehar).

The list also includes Chief Judicial Magistrates Ram Jiyavan (Chaibasa) and Ramjit Yadav (Sahibganj). Other names are Ashok Kumar Singh, Secretary of District Legal Services Authority in Garhwa, Arun Kumar Gupta, number 2 Principal Judge of Family Court in Godda, Rajnandan Rai, Presiding Officer at Labour Court in Hazaribag, Yashwant Kumar Sahi, District and Additional Session’s Judge-cum-Special Judge of Fast Track Court (rape cases), Garhwa.

Last month, LegallyIndia had reported that the Delhi High Court had also directed a lower Court Judge to retire early. Additional District and Sessions Judge Raj Kapoor, who was posted in the Patiala House Court, was relieved from his post pursuant to a full Court meeting in which three lower Court Judges’ service records were reviewed.

Interestingly, it was Judge Kapoor who had granted three months interim bail to the promoters of Unitech, one day after they were arrested for alleged cheating and fraud in a Gurgaon-based real estate project.

Thereafter, in June, the Delhi High Court’s Registrar (Vigilance) was reported to have seized three computers of the Patiala House Sessions Court for forensic analysis, after it was alleged that a Judge had written judgments in undue haste and that “there were other allegations of corruption against this particular Judge as lately he had granted Bail to a Builder arrested by the Police for Cheating the investors in Delhi- NCR.”