Jammu And Kashmir HC Denies Bail To Judicial Officer Accused Of Rape [Read Order]

If a judicial officer transgresses the scales of justice the effect would be disastrous and deleterious, the court said.

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court, while denying bail to a judicial officer in the state accused of rape and cheating, observed that the conduct of the judicial officer in indulging in the activities of which he is accused makes the crime all the more grave and the act in which he indulged cannot be equated or treated on par with an ordinary citizen/individual.

After his bail application got dismissed by the Sessions Court, the accused judicial officer had moved the high court, contending that a false and frivolous case has been lodged against him. The bench observed that the oft-repeated grounds for the grant of bail on which the accused places reliance do not hold good now in view of the Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2013.

Justice MK Hanjura wrote in his order ;

“At the outset, the petitioner has given a resume of how and in what manner he came to hold the reigns of the office of a Judicial Officer. Thereafter the petitioner has stated that he is innocent. He has not committed any offence. A false and frivolous case has been lodged against him. He is suffering from the disease of Cancer and has undergone twelve cycles of Chemotherapy. God has given him an additional lease of life and it is just by a freak of fortune that he is surviving. It has further been stated by the petitioner that he filed an application for bail in anticipation of his arrest before this Court which was rejected, where after he filed a regular bail application before the Court of learned 3 rd Additional Sessions Judge, Jammu, which met the same fate on 30.01.2018. The petitioner has proceeded to state that the grant of bail is the rule and its refusal is an exception, as has been held by the Apex Court of the Country in a catena of judicial pronouncements. There is delay in lodging the FIR. Vague and general allegations of rape have been levelled against the petitioner in the First Information Report which is totally false and devoid of any substance”.

Dismissing the application Justice MK Hanjura also said judicial officers are supposed to possess the sterling quality of integrity and integrity includes within its fold an admirable and exquisite studying character with firm adherence to the code of moral values. “If a Judicial Officer transgresses the scales of justice the effect would be disastrous and deleterious. The rules of conduct to be observed by a Judicial Officer to maintain the integrity and independence of the Judiciary and to afford the dignity of the office of Judicial Officer have been elaborated in the large number of judicial pronouncements,” the court said.

Coming down heavily, the bench said that the accused judicial officer has ‘brought the institution of justice to ridicule’.

“The offences leveled against the petitioner are horrid and heinous. The conduct of the judicial officer in indulging in the activities of which he is accused makes the crime all the more grave and the act in which he indulged cannot be equated or treated on par with an ordinary citizen/individual. No one can be allowed to erode the faith of people in the temple of justice”, the court remarked.