Dismissal of district judge on charges of corruption upheld

A division bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Justice M Nirmal Kumar in a recent order upheld the enquiry report submitted by Justice K Ravichandra Babu, which found the district judge Murugan guilty of corruption. The bench in its order said, “Even though in the present case, there is no direct evidence to speak about the receipt of illegal gratification by the petitioner for the grant of bail, for lack of direct evidence, the charges levelled against the petitioner cannot be overlooked because of the simple reason that in regard to an allegation of illegal gratification, finding/ procuring a direct evidence is a Herculean task, since the ‘beneficiary of bribe’ will seldom come forward to depose about the tainted transaction.” 

Ganesan had joined judicial service as a Magistrate in 1988 and was about to retire in November 2012, as a Principal District Judge of Tiruppur. While so, the Registrar General of the High Court initiated disciplinary proceedings against him in September 2014 after retaining him in service beyond his retirement to enable initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. 

The dismissal was challenged contending that the findings arrived at by the enquiring judge was based on conjectures, surmises and presumptions. It was contended that since the State is the appointing authority of all subordinate judicial officers including the district judges, it alone can pass an order retaining the service of a district judge and not the high court. 

However, the bench on holding that the said findings arrived by the enquiring are based on evidence and this court exercising its scope of review is not to act as a court of appeal and to interfere with the report, said, “The sterling qualities of a presiding deity of a court of law that is the judicial officer/judge are: absolute integrity, rectitude/honesty, hard work, humility, sincerity, fidelity and rumination of issues in a dispassionate manner and that too with a balanced mind, free from corrupt influence or motive; and a character of unadulterated virtue.”