Allahabad High Court expunges "habit of committing impropriety" remark against district judge after noting his bona-fide intent

The Allahabad High Court on Monday expunged its remark in an order dated November 21 that a district judge in Varanasi was in the "habit of committing impropriety", after noting his bona fide intent behind passing the order in question. [Asheem Kumar Das v. Manish Viswas & Ors].The Court had last week directed district judge Dr Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha to appear before it, after noting that he is in the habit of committing impropriety in the discharge of his judicial functions. On November 28, after the district judge appeared before the High Court, Justice Ajit Kumar completely deleted the observation, noting,"Looking to the records as placed before me and what has been submitted by the District Judge, Varanasi, I find no reason to doubt his bona fides in the matter.".The district judge had admitted a revision petition without condoning delay under Section 5 of the Limitation Act. The High Court had asked him to appear before it to explain the reason for such order. As per the facts, when summons in the case were still not served, the revision-applicant was directed to do pairvi (persuade court). On October 12, the district judge had summoned the record of the execution case instead of the record of the suit.Further, on October 17, the revision-applicant filed his reply to the objection and the matter was fixed for hearing on November 17.However, the case was taken up by the judge on November 1, without assigning any special reason for recalling the file and further summoning the executing court's order, it was argued by counsel for petitioner."How the case has been advanced by two weeks to pass the order is not reflected from the ordersheet. It is well settled that unless and until Section 5 application is allowed neither the appeal nor the revision can be held to be competent one," the High Court had said in its order.It had further noted that the judge in question was earlier hauled up for committing a similar mistake, but was shown leniency..Appearing before the High Court, Judge Vishvesha submitted that his intention was only to ensure that the revision-application did not get frustrated only because of the pendency of the Section 5 application.Thereby, in order to do justice, he had summoned the executing court's order relating to disposing of person from rented property that is parvana bedhakhali.He further submitted that any irregularity in procedure caused by calling for the record and passing the interim order on November 1, was not to prejudice the interest of the petitioner, but an act done in good faith.After High Court intervened in the matter, he passed a detailed order on November 25, by which has sent back the record of the executing court..The Court observed that since as on November 1, the revision plea was a defective one, the proper course for the judge was to dispose of the Section 5 application first and then to proceed accordingly.However, noting that on November 25, judge had sent back the files to the executing court, it observed that no grievance was left in the matter."In the circumstances and as observed above, Dr. Ajaya Krishna Vishvesha, the District Judge, Varanasi, stands honourably discharged from notice and the observations made in last fourth paragraph of my order dated 21st November, 2022 regarding his conduct, stand expunged," the order stated..The petitioner was represented by Advocates Tejas Singh, Ajay Kumar Singh, Ashish Kumar Singh..[Read Order]