Disciplinary Proceedings Against Judicial Officers Not To Be Initiated Merely Because They Passed Wrong Order: SC [Read Judgment]

To err is human and not one of us, who has held judicial office, can claim that we have never passed a wrong order, the bench comprising Justice Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose observed while quashing all the orders passed against a Judicial officer in a disciplinary proceedings against him.

The court also observed that disciplinary action should not be taken against the Judicial Officer unless there is evidence that the wrong orders have been passed for extraneous reasons and not because of the reasons on the file. 

Negligence Cannot Be Treated To Be Misconduct

One of the charges against Krishna Prasad Verma was that he did not take notice of the orders of the High Court whereby the High Court had rejected the bail application of one of the accused. Examining the relevant facts, the bench observed:

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. It would be pertinent to mention that the enquiry officer has not found that there was any extraneous reason for granting bail. The enquiry officer virtually sat as a court of appeal picking holes in the order granting bail.

The court further noted that the judge later cancelled the bail on putting to notice the order of the High Court.

Another instance raised in the charge was that he had given 18 adjournments for production of the 10 witnesses to the prosecution in the NDPS case. The court said:

Such a judicial officer is between the devil and the deep sea. If he keeps on granting adjournments then the High Court will take action against him on the ground that he does not dispose of his cases efficiently and if he closes the evidence then the High Court will take action on the ground that he has let the accused go scot-free. That is not the purpose of Article 235 of the Constitution of India. That is why we again repeat that one of the responsibilities of the High Court on the administrative side is to ensure that the independence of the District judiciary is maintained and the High Court acts as a guardian and protector of the District judiciary.

No Disciplinary proceedings merely on the ground that the judicial order is incorrect.

While allowing the appeal, the bench, further observed:

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 wrong order has been passed by the judicial officer or merely on the ground that the judicial order is incorrect.

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