TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2023 (3) TMI 1427
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....a High Court. The State is represented by Mr. Ajay Behari Sinha. 2. The original writ petitioner, a retired Judicial Officer, has been punished with his entire pension having been permanently withdrawn after excluding the pension amount which was commuted by him. 3. A proceeding was initiated against the petitioner under Rule 43 (b) of the Bihar Pension Rules, 1950 for having granted bail to one of the accused persons who was found to be in possession of fake currency notes and in the second instance of discharging an accused who was arrested on hot-chase with narcotics. 4. After the retirement of the petitioner from the post of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Motihari on 31.01.2010, a decision was taken to subject him to d....
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....hat in the first round of the departmental proceeding, the charges were found to be proved against the petitioner, but the High Court quashed the report and directed for a de novo enquiry, nominating other persons as Inquiry and Presenting Officers. This was done because the High Court was of the view that the proceedings had been conducted ex parte without intimation to the petitioner. 8. In the second instance, the Inquiry Officer, namely, the District and Sessions Judge, Muzaffarpur inquired the charges and submitted his report on 15.04.2014 before the High Court. 9. The Standing Committee of the High Court, in its meeting dated 29.04.2014 resolved to accept such report and issue a show-cause notice to the petitioner to explain as ....
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....sons were counterfeit or given to them by the Pakistani nationals, the names of whom could not be gathered, for circulation in Indian market. 14. So far as the case of discharge of an ex- Member of the Legislative Assembly is concerned, custom officials had arrested two persons, out of whom one was carrying a bag containing 14 Kgs. of Nepali charas. The person who was discharged had been driving the motorcycle and his driver, who was in possession of the narcotics, namely, Ram Surat Singh had died during the pendency of the proceeding against him. 15. The petitioner had completely over-looked the fact that the accused person in this case was declared a permanent absconder and a permanent warrant of arrest had been issued against him. ....
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....ubmitted that he is in possession of a report that one of the accused persons, after grant of bail, never returned from Nepal. However, such facts have not been brought on record during the proceeding or were placed before the High Court when the decision to punish the petitioner was taken. 23. There is nothing on record also to indicate that after the grant of bail in the counterfeit currency case, how the bail bonds were accepted, which also would have given some idea about the petitioner as a Judicial Officer, showing any unnecessary interest in the release of the accused persons. Merely because the two orders are not justified according to the parameters of law fixed would not lead to the only inescapable conclusion that there was an....
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....oted case, it was also found by the Bench that the Judge, inquiring the matter, eventually came to the conclusion that bail had been granted by the Judicial Officer in utter disregard of the judicial norms and on insufficient grounds and based on extraneous consideration with oblique motive and that the charges had been proved. The Bench took exception to the fact that the Judge who conducted the enquiry had not stated in his report as to what was the oblique motive or the extraneous consideration involved in the matter. 28. It is nobody's case that under similar circumstance bail of other accused persons were rejected or that the case was taken out of turn or that the requirements of bail bonds were not carefully verified. 29. Thus, ....
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....that the wrong orders have been passed for extraneous reasons and not because of the reasons on the file." 33. In Ishwar Chand Jain Vs. High Court of P & H; (1988) 3 SCC 370, the Supreme Court has held as follows :- "14. Under the Constitution the High Court has control over the subordinate judiciary. While exercising that control it is under a constitutional obligation to guide and protect judicial officers. An honest strict judicial officer is likely to have adversaries in the mofussil courts. If complaints are entertained on trifling matters relating to judicial orders which may have been upheld by the High Court on the judicial side no judicial officer would feel protected and it would be difficult for him to discharge his d....