A sitting Madhya Pradesh High Court judge, accused of sexually harassing a former woman judicial officer, was today "divested" of administrative and supervisory authority today by the Supreme Court which also quashed a two-judge panel set up by the HC Chief Justice to probe his alleged misconduct.
Rapping the Chief Justice of the High Court for constituting a two-Judge Committee by which he clearly traversed beyond his jurisdictional authority under the "in-house procedure", a bench headed by Justice J S Kehar also said the HC CJ should be kept out of the procedure of inquiry.
The bench said the role of the Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice should be given to his counterpart of some other High Court. Or else, it suggested that the Chief Justice of India himself assume that role as "the Chief Justice of the High Court, in the present case, travelled beyond the determinative authority vested in him, under stage-one of the in-house procedure."
The court said, "In order to ensure, that investigative process is fair and just, it is imperative to divest the concerned judge (against whom allegations have been levelled), of his administrative and supervisory authority and control over witnesses, to be produced either on behalf of the complainant, or on behalf of the concerned judge himself".
"The Chief Justice of the High Court is accordingly directed to divest Justice 'A', of the administrative and supervisory control vested in him, to the extent expressed above," the bench, also comprising Justice Arun Mishra, said in its 71-page judgement in which the alleged victim has been referred to as "X judge" and sitting High Court Judge as "Judge A".
