Law: Punjab Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1973

Section: 2(e)

Law: Punjab Subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal

Section: 5

Punjab Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1999--- ----R. 2(e)---Punjab Subordinate Judiciary Service Tribunal Act (XII of 1991), S. 5---Judicial officer---Misconduct---Dismissal from service converted to reduction to three lower stages in pay scale---Interaction of Judicial Officer with the litigant(s)---Penalty and magnitude of the misconduct committed, commensuration of---Allegation upon Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate was of receiving illegal gratification for dismissal of the bail application he was hearing---Validity---Oral as well as documentary evidence adduced by the prosecution showed that the prosecution though had established link of appellant-judge with the complainant, but had failed to establish the charges of receiving of illegal gratification or other gains and criminal intimidation---Record of as many as 96 incoming and outgoing calls exchanged between appellant and complainant/litigant was revealed---Judge could not develop terms/liaison with the litigants---Ethics prevalent globally specifically prohibited the judges from maintaining any contact with the parties appearing in their Courts---Speaking privately to the litigants by a judge, even when the conversation was on an unrelated topic, was against the propriety of his office---Practice of a Judge having contact with the litigant through social media was also deprecated---In the present case, interaction of the appellant (being a judicial officer) with litigant was against service discipline---Such conduct unbecoming of a Judicial Officer came within the definition of 'misconduct' stipulated in R. 2(e) of the Punjab Civil Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 1999---Authority could, in its discretion, award major or minor penalty but this power must be exercised reasonably which was also justifiable---Penalty should commensurate with the magnitude of the misconduct committed---Extreme penalty for an act of a lesser degree would definitely defeat the reformatory concept of punishment in administration of justice---While punishing an employee found guilty of misconduct, the competent authority was required to take into account, inter alia, the gravity of misconduct…

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