Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Corrupt members of subordinate judiciary should be thrown out: SC PTI | May 10, 2011, 08.49pm IST

Corrupt members of subordinate judiciary should be thrown out: SC


NEW DELHI: Holding that corrupt members of the subordinate judiciary should be "thrown out", the Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on a woman judge calling her a "super Supreme Court" for defying its order.

"You can't take the Supreme Court as a joke. People are looking at judges with suspicion. Today, all sort of things like 80 per cent of the subordinate judiciary are corrupt are being said, which is very shameful", fumed a two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Markanday Katju and Justice Gyan Sudha Misra.

The bench directed disciplinary action against Delhi's Additional District Judge Archana Jain for defying its order and stayed the eviction proceedings against the tenant Udham Singh Jain Charitable Trust, Central Delhi, despite the fact that the Supreme Court in an order on October 6, 2010, had dismissed the tenant's plea.

"Archana Sinha had no business to defy our order and she has become a super Supreme Court", the bench said.

The apex court said it was constrained to say that a certain section of the subordinate judiciary in the country is bringing the whole judiciary of India into disrepute by passing orders on extraneous considerations.

"We do not wish to comment on the various allegations which are often made to us about what certain members of the subordinate judiciary are doing but we do want to say that these kind of malpractices have to be totally weeded out.

"Such subordinate judiciary judges are bringing a bad name to the whole institution and must be thrown out of the judiciary," Jusice Katju, writing the judgement, said.

At one stage, the bench threatened to send the judge to jail and suspend her but after Sinha profusely apologised and pleaded for mercy, after which the apex court decided to refer the matter to the Delhi high court chief justice for necessary action.

"We will send you to jail. We will suspend you," the bench remarked orally. But later it relented and referred the judge's case to the chief justice of the high court.

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