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NEW DELHI: Terming the actions of a Madhya Pradesh judicial officer who created a ruckus inside a train and allegedly urinated on the seat of a female co-passenger as disgusting and grossest misconduct, Supreme Court on Monday blocked the way for his reinstatement in the service. It stayed a MP HC order which had set aside his termination and directed his reinduction.Interestingly, it is MP HC administration which has approached SC challenging the order passed by its judicial side. Acting on the recommendation of the administrative committee and its full court reference, HC administration had terminated his job but he challenged it on the judicial side and a division bench set aside the termination order.”This is a shocking case. You urinated in the compartment. There was a lady… It is disgusting,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said. It expressed surprise on how can HC pass the order in favour of a judicial officer after his disgusting behaviour in public.HC, in his petition filed by advocate Divyakant Lahoti, said that the judicial officer “indulged in an extremely indecent conduct by urinating on the seat of a female co-passenger, exposing his private parts which is unbecoming of a judge”. It said that HC erred in reinstating him on the basis that he was acquitted in a criminal case lodged against him after the incident.”The reasoning adopted by HC, if allowed to stand, sets a damaging precedent whereby judicial officers proven guilty of misconduct in duly conducted departmental inquires may evade accountability by relying on technical criminal acquittals. Such an approach erodes the autonomy of disciplinary mechanisms, weakens institutional discipline, and risks undermining the very confidence that the public reposes in the judiciary. The preservation of judicial integrity demands that departmental findings, reached through a fair process and on the standard of preponderance of probabilities, be accorded their due weight, or the credibility of the institution itself would be in great peril,” the petition said.The incident happened when the judge was travelling in an overnight express in June 2018 & was allegedly drunk. He had misbehaved and harassed co-passengers & indulged in obscene actions. He was arrested and was immediately released on bail. He was also acquitted in criminal case lodged against him after witnesses including TTE & victim passengers turned hostile.tnn
