44 judges face internal probe in UP

The list,titled ‘Data Regarding Administrative/ Disciplinary Action Against Judicial Officers’,covers the period between April 1,2010 and March 31,2011. The authorities in charge of the investigations against the judicial officers are either the Registrar General or the Registrar (Vigilance) of the state high courts concerned.

As per the list,a total of 305 departmental inquiries are pending against the lower judiciary across 21 states. Of this,major penalities have been imposed on 38 judicial officers and minor ones on 35 others.

After scrutiny,15 judicial officers belonging to the district judge cadre have been found guilty of serious misdemeanour and penalised,while 14 others in the same category have been slapped minor penalties.

Of the total 325 judicial officers whose probation was extended because of unsatisfactory performance,44 belong to the district judge cadre.

The list shows that no judicial officers in Delhi,Lakshwadeep and Sikkim are facing any inquiry. The seven north-eastern states of Assam,Nagaland,Meghalaya,Manipur,Tripura,Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh together have only three departmental inquiries pending against the lower judiciary.

The Patna HC is inquiring into six complaints against its judicial officers; the Orissa HC and Punjab and Haryana HC have nine cases each; Uttarakhand HC has four; Calcutta HC has six; Chhattisgarh HC has eight; Jharkhand HC has five; and Himachal Pradesh HC has two cases.

Chhattisgarh has the highest number of judicial officers — 16 — who sought premature retirement at the age of 50,and that too all in the district judge cadre.