After the episode of sentencing Mid-Day journalists for writing against former CJI, a question arose among the intellectuals in the country that which institution, in the Indian democracy, should have the power to check judicial functions. A decision given by the Delhi High Court has answered to the question to some extent.

This is being called as the unprecedented move in the annals of Indian judiciary till the date. On Friday, the Delhi High Court ordered a subordinate judge to go again to the three months’ training at the Delhi Judicial Academy. The Delhi HC passed the order by saying that the additional sessions judge does not even have the basic knowledge of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Earlier, an additional sessions judge (ASJ) in a special electricity court, RK Tewari, had reportedly bypassed the normal judicial procedure and declared a man as proclaimed offender in a power theft case. The ASJ did it when the man did not respond to summons issued by the court.

The man, Rohit Kumar, allegedly did not receive the summons in time. Apart of that, the ASJ had questioned the order passed by the Delhi High Court in which it had stayed the lower court’s ruling in the case.

Delhi HC judge VB Gupta held that justice RK Tewari was not well aware with the fundamentals of the criminal procedure code.

He said:

Under these circumstances, it would be appropriate if he undergoes a refresher course at DJA in criminal law and procedure. ASJ Tewari was not at ease with the order passed by the high court.

In spite the fact that Mr RK Tewari has no basic knowledge of the criminal law, he has chosen to comment on the order passed by this court, which amounts to judicial indiscipline.

He also ordered the director of Delhi Judicial Academy to submit the performance report of the judge after the given period of training time in court.

Earlier in the past, the higher judiciary has also issued strictures against judges of the lower courts but this has happened for the first time that a judge has been sent back to the law school to receive another training to know the basics of functions of judicial system.

Later, the Delhi HC has said to circulate the copies of the judgment in all lower courts in order to make the judges accountable in more ways than one.

However, the developments have divided the legal society as well. Former union law minister Ram Jethmalani has praised the Delhi HC Judge for taking such steps and termed the order as path breaking.

While, senior Supreme Court advocate Harish Salve has said that the Lower court judges can’t be scared this way. The High Court judge had no business to pass such order to send ASJ to law school.

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