SC to Judges: Follow roster, taking unassigned cases gross impropriety

Thereafter, in what the SC called a “very extraordinary step”, the accused filed a civil writ petition. In May, the other Judge hearing civil writ petitions allowed the FIRs to be clubbed, and, in June, also directed that no coercive action be taken against the accused.

The appellant, Ambalal Parihar, at whose instance six FIRs were registered against the accused, claimed before the apex court that a civil writ petition was filed to avoid the roster judge who had not granted interim relief.

“This is a shocking case of gross abuse of the process of law… We wonder how a civil writ petition for clubbing First Information Reports could be entertained. In the roster notified by the Chief Justice, there is a separate roster for criminal writ petitions,” the bench said in its October 16 order. “If the courts allow such sharp practices, the roster notified by the Chief Justice will have no meaning,” it said.

Calling it a “classic case of forum hunting”, the bench said: “The Judges have to follow discipline and ought not to take up any case unless it is specifically assigned by the Chief Justice. A Judge can take up a case, provided either the cases of that category have been assigned to him as per the notified roster, or the particular case is specifically assigned by the Chief Justice. Taking up a case not specifically assigned by the Chief Justice is an act of gross impropriety. Though a civil writ petition was filed, the learned Judge ought to have converted it into a criminal writ petition which could have been placed only before the roster Judge taking up criminal writ petitions”.

The complainants were not impleaded in the civil writ petition and, “interestingly, both in the civil and criminal cases, the same advocate represented the” accused, the SC noted.

The SC said “this is a fit case where the” accused “must be saddled with costs” and asked them to pay Rs 50,000 to the Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority within a month, and to produce the receipt before it within six weeks from the date of the order.

The bench dismissed the civil writ petition and directed that “the conduct of the… respondents shall be brought to the notice of the concerned court which is hearing petitions under Section 482 CrPC filed by” them “for quashing the FIRs”.