After the Supreme Court intervened, the Patna High Court reverses its decision to suspend a POCSO judge.
In response to the Supreme Court’s intervention, the Patna High Court decided to drop its action against a district judge from Bihar who had been suspended with effect from February of this year. Shishikant Rai v. High Court of Judicature at Patna & Anr.
Shashi Kant Rai, an additional sessions judge from Araria in Bihar, challenged a suspension order that had just been upheld by the High Court in a Supreme Court case.
According to the order made public today and signed by the Registrar General of the High Court, the High Court decided to end departmental proceedings against the Special Judge under POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act) as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this week.
The panel of Justices UU Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat stated on Monday that it would be best for everyone if the disciplinary actions against the judge from Araria, Bihar, were dropped, especially since it may send the wrong message to other judges.
“We sincerely urge that you drop everything. If you don’t want to, we can start right away. Unless you’re alleging corruption, there must be something evident. He is terribly unfair to him because all he is doing is following directions. It gives other, more competent people the wrong impression. The Bench had spoken a statement.
There shouldn’t be an overzealous desire to punish, according to Justice Bhat.
The judge was ready to provide a statement before the High Court challenging the claims made against him, according to Senior Attorney Vikas Singh, who was representing the petitioner.
The district judge claimed before the Supreme Court that he was the only one singled out for criticism of the recently put in place evaluation mechanism for promotions in the district justice.
After being passed over repeatedly for promotion as a civil judge, the petitioner-judge had written to the High Court asking it to consider restoring seniority as a foundation for such raises (senior division).
It is claimed that by issuing the petitioner a show cause notice right away and then suspending him without giving a reason, the Hon’ble High Court violated its constitutional obligations to protect and guide judicial personnel.
It’s interesting to note that the petitioner had judged a man guilty of sexually assaulting a child in November 2021 after only one day of hearings and had given him a life sentence.
In his case before the highest court, Rai alleged that after issuing the order, he received death threats.
He was also mentioned in relation to the suspension order and the current disciplinary processes, both of which allegedly occurred without any justification and caused him mental agony because “he stands condemned for an action that otherwise gained the adoration of the State.”
One of the reasons he was suspended was because he handed down a death sentence after deliberating on a case for four days. During a previous hearing, the top court had stated the following regarding this topic:
“We’ve been trying to figure out how to evaluate mitigating circumstances in death sentences, and they must view the jail records. The judge pronounced the death sentence in this instance in just four days.
