The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi High Court passes strictures against judge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Delhi High Court passes strictures against judge

Staff Reporter

For not following due process of law in passing an order

The judge also criticised for making comments on a High Court order
The Judge advised to go for a refresher course at the Delhi Judicial Academy

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday passed strictures against an Additional Sessions Judge here for not following the procedure laid down in the Criminal Procedure Code for pronouncing an accused a proclaimed offender and ordering attachment of his property in a power theft case.

Justice V.B. Gupta also criticised the Judge, R.K. Tewari, for making comments on a High Court order on a petition by accused Rohit Kumar in the case seeking a stay on the process to declare him a proclaimed offender and order attachment of his property.

“Prima facie it appears that the trial court was not at ease with the order passed by the High Court and the observations made by it are uncalled for, as they cast aspersions on the functioning of this Court,” Mr. Justice Gupta said. “It appears that the trial court was in undue haste and was bent upon to declare the petitioner a proclaimed offender, without following the due process of law,” Mr. Justice Gupta observed.

The High Court had stayed execution of the process for declaring the petitioner a proclaimed offender and subsequently attaching his property.

Complying with the High Court order, Mr. Tewari had said that there was no cause for action in favour of the accused before the High Court.

“In spite of the fact that Mr. Tewari has no basic knowledge of criminal law, he has chosen to comment on the order passed by this Court, which amounts to judicial indiscipline,” Mr. Justice Gupta observed.

He advised the Judge to go for a refresher course in criminal law and procedure at the Delhi Judicial Academy. Mr. Justice Gupta said the Judge should join the course at least for three months.

Performance report

He directed the District Judge to ensure that the Additional Sessions Judge’s name was recommended for the first such course available. He directed the Director of the Academy to submit a performance report to the Court on completion of the course by the Judge.

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