Bihar cabinet approves dismissal of three judges

The Bihar cabinet Tuesday formally approved the dismissal of three senior judicial officers, as recommended by the Patna High Court, for their involvement in "undesirable activities" in a hotel in Nepal.

"The state government has approved the dismissal of three senior judicial officers by the high court which sent its recommendation to the government," Cabinet Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told media persons here.

Last Friday, a full court meeting of the Patna High Court, presided over by Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit approved a resolution, based on a standing committee recommendation, to dismiss the three from service.

The three are Komal Ram, a sub judge in Nawada district, Jitendra Nath Singh, adhoc additional district and session judge, Ara in Bhojpur district and Hari Niwas Gupta, judge of the family court in Muzaffarpur district, official said.

According to officials, the court initiated action against the three after a detailed inquiry following a report in Nepalese daily "Utgosh' Jan 29, 2013 about a raid in a hotel in Biratnagar town Jan 2 during which they were caught with some women. The trio was however released without recording their detention.

In last June, the union home ministry had written to the registrar general of Patna High Court to bring the matter to the notice of chief justice for information and appropriate action.

A preliminary inquiry was conducted by Purnea's District and Session Judge Sanay Kumar. Later, another inquiry was made by the union home ministry, the Bihar Police and telecom department.

The report said that the mobile phone location of all the three officers was found to be within the range of Forbisganj tower, near the India-Nepal border, Jan 26-27. Their phones were in silent mode for some time and then all the three were in constant touch. Soon, they were back in India.

The enquiry report even mentioned the registration number of the car which they used to go to Nepal.

The report further said that as the incident occurred in a foreign country, direct evidence was not available and the hotel destroyed the relevant pages from its register, but from the materials available, the involvement of the three was proved on the principle of preponderance of probability.

All the three denied their involvement or that they had crossed over to Nepal.

Only last month, the Patna High Court had ordered compulsory retirement of Jehanabad District Judge Ajay Kumar Srivastava on the recommendation of a seven member committee looking into allegations of idecent behaviour and malpractice against him.