HC junks plea by Nuapada judge challenging departmental action

Cuttack: Orissa high court dismissed a petition by a senior civil judge in Nuapada district challenging departmental proceedings against him observing that “merely because a complaint against a judicial officer is not supported by sworn affidavits, it does not automatically warrant an outright dismissal”.
Khariar Judicial Bar Association in Nuapada district had raised serious concerns about judge Santosh Kumar Agarwal’s conduct and behaviour in a complaint before the HC chief justice on Jan 22, 2022.Agarwal challenged the departmental proceedings on the ground that it was contrary to the guidelines issued by the Chief Justice of India for dealing with complaints against subordinate judiciary as the Bar association’s complaint was not supported by sworn affidavits.
The two-judge bench of Justices S K Sahoo and Chittaranjan Dash dismissed the plea saying, “While the CJI’s guideline aims to protect judicial officers from unwarranted harassment, it does not eliminate the possibility of addressing genuine issues faced by individuals or communities due to the actions of a judicial officer.”
“In the comprehensive reading of the said guideline, what emerges is that a complaint is not supposed to be ignored from its very inception without even verifying the legitimacy of the complaint as nowhere in the guideline the high court is debarred from initiating its own enquiry over any complaint where the allegations prima facie reveals verifiable material supporting the complaint subject to an enquiry on the authenticity of the allegations against a concerned judicial officer,” the bench opined.