Srinagar, May 29: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir has upheld the termination order of a judge who was dismissed from service on charges of misconduct, breach of judicial discipline, misuse of authority and dereliction of duty.
 Justice Yaqboob Mir upheld the termination of sub-judge Vijay Kumar Attari, observing that “the judicial officers have a divine job to discharge. When a deviation is noticed to be dangerous, removal of deviator becomes imperative to maintain the magnificence of the institution, lest tremendous faith reposed by the public in it will get eroded.”
 Significantly, the High Court was the petitioner in the case wherein 11 allegations had been leveled against Vijay Kumar, with three proving correct.

THE CHARGES
 As sub-judge in Leh in 1993-1994, Vijay Kumar was accused of recovering a challan of Rs 2500 from a minibus driver but mentioning only Rs 1200 in the register.
 He was accused of imposing fine of Rs 350 on a shopkeeper for driving his scooter without registration. And next day “he along with his guard visited his shop, seized his scooter for non-payment of the fine. He brought the shopkeeper and his scooter to the nearest police station and then handed them over to the Police with an instruction to keep the shopkeeper in the lock up till he comes back or calls them up.”
 He was accused of availing leave for 15 days but didn’t turn back for months together without informing the competent authority.
 In 1994 the High Court ordered an inquiry into the allegations and found them correct. He was immediately placed under suspension.
 Attri was issued a show-cause notice wherein he came up with detailed statement in his defense.
 The Full Court considered the inquiry report and observed that Attri is not a fit person to be retained in service and should be terminated. The Court removed him from service on August 29, 2000.

ORDER CHALLENGED
 Attri filed writ petition in the High Court against the order. In August 2009, the single bench quashed the order and directed that the judge be reinstated.
 The High Court filed appeal against the judgment before the Division Bench, which differed on his termination.
 In 2009, the then Chief Justice Brain Ghosh justified the removal of sub-judge saying, “I do not think the writ court was competent to interfere with the order of punishment on non-interferable charges number 8 and 11 (punishing the shopkeeper and leave without permission) which stand proved against respondent (Attri).”
 The then Chief Justice allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment under appeal.

FRESH INQUIRY
 However, Justice Sunil Hali called for fresh inquiry into the charges. He observed that the report was not furnished to the respondent. He, however, said the respondent should be reinstated only for the purpose of inquiry and his status as suspended employee should continue till the inquiry is completed.
 Following the difference of opinion, the case was referred to the third judge. The third judge justice Muhammad Yaqoob Mir in his detailed judgment on May 24, 2011 observed: “Referring of the matter back to the disciplinary authority is totally uncalled for because no prejudice at all is caused to the respondent.”
 He said the inquiry report and its acceptance by the Court have been served to the “delinquent official.”
 “There was no deprivation of proper representation. The requirement of serving second show cause notice and furnishing report of inquiry officer has been compiled with.”
 Justice Yaqoob upheld the termination order.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 May 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 May 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 IST