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Judge says corruption in Patna HC an ‘open secret’, full bench bars him from hearing cases

Patna High Court Justice Rakesh Kumar made the remark in his scathing judgment as he ordered a CBI probe into alleged corruption in lower judiciary.

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Patna, New Delhi: The Patna High Court has barred one of its own judges from adjudicating on cases after he ordered a CBI probe into alleged corruption in the state’s lower judiciary and, in a scathing judgment, also held that graft in the high court was “an open secret”.

In a swift order, the full bench of 11 judges in the Patna HC Wednesday issued a notice debarring the judge, Justice Rakesh Kumar, from hearing any case and also ordered the registrar to show why the specific case was listed before the judge. “All the matters pending before Hon’ble Justice Rakesh Kumar, sitting singly including tied-up/part-heard or otherwise stands withdrawn from immediate effect,” the notice said.

The notice was issued moments after Justice Kumar delivered an order while hearing the multi-crore Mahadalit Vikas Mission scam, in which three IAS officers — K.P. Ramaiya, Ramashish Paswan and S.M. Raju — have been chargesheeted by the state vigilance department.

Irked by the lower court granting bail to Ramaiya, Justice Kumar noted the prevalence of corruption in the judiciary. He named four additional district judges who have been accused of corruption before he turned the lens on the high court itself.

The judge immediately felt the heat as the full bench convened by Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi then decided to withdraw all matters from him. The full bench, while issuing the notice, observed that Justice Kumar had “lowered the prestige of the court” and that it was “not expected” from a person holding the post of a judge of the high court.

His removal from hearing any cases, however, has upset lawyers of the court. “To save an independent judiciary, strengthen a strong and fearless and fair judiciary, we support Justice Rakesh Kumar,” said Chhaya Misra, joint secretary of the Patna High Court lawyers’ association. “He has written what the common man experiences and feels.”

The situation is also reminiscent of the time when Justice C.S. Karnan (retd) of the Calcutta High Court bore the brunt, including serving time for contempt, after he alleged corruption among judges of the Supreme Court.


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The verdict that caused trouble

Delivering a 20-page judgment on the scam, Justice Kumar, among all other things, expressed shock at the failure of the high court to take action against judges and employees of the Patna lower court allegedly shown taking bribes in a sting operation conducted by a TV channel.

“The judiciary that is otherwise known to be firm and ruthless in dealing with corruption in other organs of the state, has left the billion-plus people of India in a state of disbelief and shock through its silence on the sting in Patna district court,” reads the 28 August verdict.

The judge then targetted the “irregular method of granting bail” to the accused in the case.

“The manner, in which, an accused is granted bail, raises the finger against the judiciary, certainly exercising supervisory power,” Justice Kumar said. “This court is entitled to examine as to whether the power for grant of bail was exercised judiciously. This is an open case of siphoning off of huge public amount meant for the upliftment of members of suppressed society.”

He further directed the Patna district judge to conduct an inquiry as to how on the “date of granting bail, the regular vigilance court was on leave” and whether it was due to a “genuine case or did it go on leave in a calculated way”.


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CBI probe 

With regard to the sting operation that allegedly showed judges and employees of the Patna lower court accepting “illegal gratification”, the judge expressed unhappiness at the fact that even though a letter was written to the chief justice and the matter was placed before a committee, there was a delay in registering an FIR in the case, which in turn could lead to “destruction of evidence”.

He then directed the CBI director to conduct an investigation into the entire sting operation and check whether the claims of bribes were true. “While conducting inquiry or investigation, the CBI will be at liberty to examine everything, including patronage, if any,” the judge noted.

The judge also named four additional district judges in his verdict who were accused of corruption and stated that they also must be investigated.

Corruption in high court an open secret: Justice Kumar

The judge also had a scathing assessment of his peers, stating in the verdict that corruption in the high court was “an open secret”.

Justice Kumar further stated that “to save the respect of judiciary”, the court must hold those guilty of corruption accountable, or else, “the faith of entire society will be finished in the judicial system”.

He also made note of how huge funds were being spent on the renovation and maintenance of bungalows of high court judges and said that over Rs 1 crore was spent for each judge. “It has been noticed that instead of discharging duty, we are more indulged in enjoying privileges,” the verdict said.

His observations were also not confined just to the Patna High Court. He went on to say that it was “known to everyone” that “one senior judge from the Allahabad High Court during the fodder scam period had got his wife nominated as a Rajya Sabha member”. He added that another “judge from the Allahabad High Court” who granted bail to an accused too had sought illegal help from another judge for the case.

Justice Kumar had ordered that his judgment be delivered to the Supreme Court, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Union law ministry.


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6 COMMENTS

  1. The 11 judges of patna high court did what is best described as judicial gangsterism.
    shame on them and the supreme court for tolerating the smothering of rakesh kumar J.
    remember there are 24 judges of patna high court, many did not join this so called full court 11 gangster judgment.

  2. Sanctity of the judiciary is at its lowest ebbs. 130 million people with less space in everything has to squabble to get more space and most of the time, since resources and space crunch, even unscrupulously. So judiciary has got the potential to provide sustainance to many people, most of them do not earn that sustainance hence we see openly judges and judgements are bought and sold for as less as twenty to fifty thousands in lower, session and district courts. Even after witnessing false sworn affidavits and perjury by the witnesses judges do not invoke 340 (read with) section 195 of IPC clause B to punish such people which could be an effective deterent against false cases and less clogging of judiciary. It is not done by the presiding officers to provide ‘gainfull’ employment to corrupts peshkars, clerks, recorderoom keepers and many incompetent lawyers. In this scenario an investigation by CBI of corruption in judiciary as well as against corrupt officers and judges is a must in larger interest of our society. Along with this there should be a coordinated raid by IT and ED on judges of all the courts, starting with the state of Bihar.

  3. Honourable Justice Kumar Deserves the Heart Felt Blessings of all Indians whose fed-upness & being disillusioned in Indian Courts is so well known & so much talked without any remedy in sight.

  4. What justice Kumar said…. word by word each incident what was happened in the past is absolutely correct…..
    Judiciary is nothing more than a puppet…..

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