Patna High Court in first-of-its-kind initiate suo motu proceeding (11 Judges bench) to suspend Single Judge order alleging corruption in Judiciary

On 29.08.2019, the Chief Justice of Patna High Court in a suo motu proceeding constituted special bench of eleven Judges after taking judicial notice of the print and social media publications of the content of an order dated 28th of August, 2019 passed in Cr. Misc. No.4117 of 2018 by a learned Single Judge.

The Chief Justice on the administrative side upon having noticed the circulation of the news on the internet and social media had on the basis of information received and concerns expressed by fellow members of the Bench had issued directions to withdraw all judicial work of the Ld. Single Judge with immediate effect.

The eleven Judges bench in its order observed that there is no written order nor any application nor any proceeding on the strength whereof the said listing was directed by Ld. Single Judge. The Cr. Misc. case which has been disposed off was a matter relating to an anticipatory bail under Section 438 Cr. P. C. This was a pure anticipatory bail proceeding which stood terminated with the passing of the final order on 23rd of March, 2018. 

The Court made following observations about the jurisdiction assumed by the Ld. Single Judge:

"We find that the learned Single Judge committed the gravest of error by assuming a jurisdiction which was not available to him under any law for the time being in force, not even by any administrative order of the Chief Justice. In the absence of any judicial proceeding pending or otherwise, there was no occasion for the learned Single Judge to have assumed an authority which he otherwise did not possess on the subject matter either under the Patna High Court Rules or even under the Code of Criminal Procedure. This very assumption of jurisdiction, therefore, stands explained with the facts on record that the learned Single Judge got the case listed suo motu before him and has thereafter passed the order dated 28th of August, 2019..."

The Court recorded its anguish about the immediate publication of order of the Ld. Single Judge on various prints and electronic media, before it was officially uploaded on the Court website. The Court observed that:

"After the order was passed and even before the order was uploaded, the news print, the social media as well as the entire world had been informed of the passing of the order of the learned Single Judge with almost its exact content, and which stood published in no uncertain terms in several Dailies, including the Times of India, Dainik Jagaran, Dainik Bhaskar and other Newspapers. We have placed the same on record while taking cognizance of this matter. A perusal of the order which has been uploaded during the course of the hearing of this matter, we find that the same does not materially differ from the news item and contains more details which deserves to be dealt with immediately for reasons hereinafter". 

The Court after recording various paragraphs from the Ld. Single Judge order passed a direction to suspend the order with immediate effect. The Court observed:

"...the Bench finds this to be a painful task to perform, but, nonetheless, it deserves to be performed in the circumstances given above. When we have to take a just stand to uphold the majesty of the Institution, an individual Judge’s identity is inconsequential. We are, therefore, left with no other option but to suspend the entire order dated 28th of August, 2019 with a further direction that the file of the case shall not be placed before the learned Single Judge nor any such directions given by him which as explained above are coram non judice shall be implemented by any authority nor shall be dispatched as desired by him."

However, the suo motu proceeding is not over in the Patna High Court for time being. The matter might be listed in future, if necessary.

• This action remind us the infamous ugly fight between the Supreme Court and the Ld. Single Judge, J. Chinnaswamy Swaminathan Karnan(retired) from Madras High Court, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment for contempt of Court as a sitting High Court Judge.

It will be interesting to see, how the matter unfolds in future, and how Ld. Single Judge respond to suspension of its Order.