Strictures – Strictures against the judicial officers – Expunction – High Court passed strictures against the Judicial Officer that the Judicial Officer had passed the order granting bail to the accused in a grossly inappropriate and cavalier manner while ignoring the criminal record of the accused; and that the act of the Judicial Officer tantamounted to indiscipline, negligence and, ignorance and disobedience of the orders passed by the High Court, and directed that the copy of the order be placed before the Chief Justice of the High Court for perusal – Expunction of:
Held: High Courts should ordinarily refrain from passing strictures against the judicial officers while deciding matters on the judicial side – Strictures passed by the High Court against the Judicial Officer were uncalled for and thus, are expunged – Strictures and/or the scathing observations were made by the Single Judge of the High Court to the detriment of the Judicial Officer without providing him any opportunity of explanation or showing cause – Furthermore, the entire foundation of the High Court’s order seems to be based on the judgment by the High Court in Jugal’s case which stands reversed by this Court in the case of Ayub Khan’s case – Impugned order modified to that extent. [Paras 18, 20, 21] Judicial directions – Accounting for the criminal antecedents of the accused while considering the bail applications – Rule 5 of Chapter 1-A(b) Volume-V of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Rules specifically provide that in every application for bail presented to the High Court the petitioner to state whether similar application has or has not been made to the Supreme Court, with its result, and petitioner’s involvement in any other criminal cases – Issuance of directions by this Court that every High Court to consider incorporation of a similar provision in the respective High Court Rules and/or Criminal Side Rules as it would impose an obligation on the accused to make disclosures regarding its involvement in any other criminal cases previously registered – Communication of the said order to the Registrar Generals of all the High Courts for the incorporation of the similar Rule, if such provision does not exist. [Paras 22-24]
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Headnotes prepared by: Nidhi Jain. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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