Allahabad HC judge has made a mockery of justice, says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has passed a scathing order reprimanding an Allahabad High Court judge, choosing to name him while saying that he not only “cut a sorry figure for himself but has made a mockery of justice”.

The order brought to fore the Supreme Court’s apprehensions about the High Court judiciary’s performance.

“We are at our wits’ end to understand what is wrong with the Indian judiciary at the level of the High Court. At times we are left wondering whether such orders are passed on some extraneous considerations or it is sheer ignorance of law. Whatever it be, passing of such absurd and erroneous orders is something unpardonable,” a Bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan wrote in a 19-page order dictated in open court on August 4 and published on Tuesday.

The apex court recorded that the High Court judge in question, Justice Prashant Kumar, found nothing wrong in a litigant filing a criminal case against a buyer in a purely civil dispute over an unpaid balance of money in a sale transaction.

In fact, the Bench said the High Court judge had found that registering a criminal case for ‘criminal breach of trust’ would be a quicker way to get the unpaid balance. A civil suit would be too laborious and time-consuming.

“The judge has gone to the extent of saying that asking the complainant to pursue civil remedy for the purpose of recovery of the balance amount will be very unreasonable as civil suit may take a long time… It was expected of the High Court to know the well-settled position of law that in cases of civil dispute a complainant cannot be permitted to resort to criminal proceedings as the same would amount to abuse of process”, the Supreme Court noted.

Justice Pardiwala, the lead judge on the apex court Bench, asked how the ingredients of the offence of ‘criminal breach of trust’ would apply to a sale transaction. The offence would only arise if there was a fraudulent misappropriation of an ‘entrusted’ property. “Mere transaction of sale cannot amount to an entrustment,” the apex court explained.

Interestingly, even the local police had refused to lodge a criminal case, saying the nature of the dispute was purely civil. However, the Magistrate had gone ahead to register a criminal case, oblivious of the point that the dispute concerned only a sale transaction and payment of a balance amount. Justice Kumar had seconded the Magistrate’s point of view, refusing to quash the criminal case.

“We are not taken by surprise with the Magistrate exhibiting complete ignorance of law as to what constitutes cheating and criminal breach of trust … However, we expected at least the High Court to understand the fine distinction between the two offences and the necessary ingredients to constitute the offence of cheating and criminal breach of trust,” the apex court rued.

It further asked the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice to remove Justice Kumar from the criminal roster and not assign any criminal case to the latter till he demitted office. “The Chief Justice shall make the judge concerned sit in a Division Bench with a seasoned senior judge of the High Court,” the Supreme Court noted.