Supreme Court upholds dismissal of judicial officer who accepted international hotel bookings from unknown person

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with an order dismissing a judicial officer from service for accepting hotel bookings by an unknown person for a trip abroad. [Naveen Arora v. High Court of Delhi and Anr].A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Pankaj Mithal found no reason to interfere with the Delhi High Court judgment calling for the dismissal of the judge..Justices Manmohan and Saurabh Banerjee of the Delhi High Court had found that acceptance of payment from a stranger was unbecoming of a judicial officer, as the post was coveted and had responsibilities attached to it. “A Judicial Officer is expected to be unceremonious and not take things in an easy manner. A Judicial Officer is expected to be more prudent. At the end of the day “A Judge is a Judge who is always open to be judged,” read the judgment.The judicial officer not reasonably explaining why or how he accepted the bookings, as per the Court, was sufficient for him to be held guilty..Before the High Court, the judicial officer claimed that there was no malafide on his part, as he did not withhold any information about the payments. He also stated that he owed money to a friend and client of his younger brother for the hotel bookings.He submitted that he had offered money to the client in exchange for the hotel bookings before leaving for the trip. The person had assured him that he would accept the money only upon their return, but later refused to accept it.Furthermore, it was contended that the petitioner had not accepted any favours in exchange for the discharge of his duties, and it was not a case of quid pro quo. Additionally, the person in question was residing in Singapore, and there was no situation in which the petitioner could have obliged him..The issue arose when the judicial officer traveled abroad with his family. Upon his return, discrepancies were discovered in the documents he submitted to the High Court regarding hotel bookings.It was found that a person named Shyam Sunder Bajaj had made payments for the officer's bookings.As a result, an inquiry officer was appointed and proceedings were initiated against the judge. An inquiry report was filed, followed by an order from the Full Court dismissing the judicial officer from service..The petitioner was represented by Senior Advocate Vinay Garg, Advocate-on-Record (AoR) Arjun Singh Bhati and Advocates Vivek Singh, Apurv Parashari and Vineet Budhiraja..[Read Order]