Patna HC bench junks judge’s order

Source: Times of India dated 30.08.2019

Debashish Karmakar, Patna

He Had Made Allegations Of Rampant Bribery In Civil Court

A Patna high court 11-judge bench suspended on Thursday a single-judge bench’s order of a day earlier directing a CBI inquiry into “rampant bribery” in the city civil court, a move described as unprecedented in the state’s legal history. The 11-judge bench, headed by chief justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, not only termed Justice Rakesh Kumar’s single-bench order “null and void under law” but also questioned his jurisdiction.

On Wednesday, Justice Kumar had made adverse remarks about the “Patna judgeship” while ordering a CBI probe into bribery allegations that had featured in two separate sting operations carried out by private TV channels in December 2017.

He had also suo moto revived the matter of the anticipatory bail petition of scam-accused retired IAS officer K P Ramaiah. He directed the Patna district and session judge to conduct an inquiry and submit a report within four weeks on how, and under what circumstances, Ramaiah was granted bail after surrendering. On March 23 last year, Justice Kumar had rejected the bureaucrat’s plea keeping in view the serious nature of allegations against him.

In relation to Justice Kumar’s oral order for the listing of the case without mentioning any directive from the chief justice, the 11-judge bench observed that the judge had overstepped his judicial limits for “gaining yellow-page fame”. Before delivering the order, the chief justice summoned the court master attached to Justice Rakesh Kumar and took a written explanation from him on how and on whose orders he had acted to get the matter listed. He also took note of the involvement of all HC officials who acted to get the case listed and wanted to know how the counsel for the state and the accused got to know the matter was listed.

Taking suo moto cognizance of the case from news items on Thursday on Justice Kumar’s order, the 11-judge bench observed, “It seems the learned judge assumed himself to be pure as 24-carat gold. His order was malicious and delivered with prejudice. He committed grievous error by assuming a jurisdiction which was not available to him under any law for the time being in force, not even by administrative order of the chief justice seems the learned judge assumed that whatever he has perceived from his experience is all 24-carat truth and, except himself, the rest of the world had created misery around. His order was malicious and delivered with prejudice. He committed a grievous error by assuming a jurisdiction which was not available to him under any law.”

Justice Kumar had directed that his order be communicated to the CJI as well as the SC collegium judges, the PMO and the Union ministry of law and justice. He had urged the SC to take appropriate steps to reintroduce the policy of transferring judges from their parent HC after elevation to plug “incidents of favouritism and corruption”. The 11-judge bench directed that all matters pending before Justice Kumar be withdrawn immediately. A notice in this regard was included in Thursday’s cause-list of the high court. During Wednesday’s hearing, Justice Kumar had directed the Patna district and session judge to conduct an inquiry and submit a report within four weeks on how Ramaiah was granted bail.