HC judges inspect trial courts, find many jud officers late

In an unprecedented move, Delhi High Court judges led by Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Gita Mittal today paid surprise visits at the lower courts here and found that several had not started functioning as the judicial officers were late.
ACJ Mittal, who herself visited the Patiala House courts complex here to get the first-hand account of punctuality of judges, working atmosphere and cleanliness, found that out of 27 judicial officers there, only eight were presiding over the courts at 10 AM, the reporting time for the lower courts.
Registrar General (RG) Dinesh Kumar Sharma told PTI that the surprise move was aimed at checking various aspects of functioning of the lower judiciary including punctuality and discipline.

Sharma said other senior judges carried out similar inspections of trial court complexes at Tis Hazari, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka and Saket.
"Justice Ravindra Bhat visited Tis Hazari courts, Justice Sanjiv Khanna went to Rohini courts, Justice G S Sistani showed up at Karkardooma courts, Justice S Muralidhar at Saket court and Justice Vipin Sanghi went to Dwarka court," the RG said.
He said the "unprecedented" decision to conduct surprise checks was taken by ACJ Mittal.

On being asked whether any action would be taken against the judicial officers who were late-comers, the Registrar General said the high court will take "appropriate action".

Court sources said that a majority of judicial officers were found to be late and many of them arrived only after 10:30 AM, though the reporting time is 10 AM.
The High Court, in the recent times, has taken strict view of laxity and impropriety on the part of judges of the subordinate judiciary.
Recently, the services of a judicial officer was terminated days before taking charge as a Metropolitan Magistrate in Tis Hazari court.
The high court had also compulsorily retired an additional sessions judge over graft allegations which came to fore in a complaint lodged by the Enforcement Directorate.

The High Court reviews the performance of a lower court judge at the age of 58 to decide whether he or she can be allowed to superannuate at the age of 60 years.