Uttarakhand High Court sets aside suspension of Chamoli judge accused of obtaining woman's call records

The Uttarakhand High Court recently overturned the suspension of Chamoli district judge Dhananjay Chaturvedi on finding that procedural rules for disciplinary proceedings were not followed in suspending the judge [Dhananjay Chaturvedi v High Court of Uttarakhand]..The district judge was suspended last year on allegations that witness statements in his court was recorded even when he was not physically present. A second charge against the judge was that he obtained call detail records of a female employee, thereby infringing her privacy..A High Court bench of Justices Rakesh Thapliyal and Pankaj Purohit set aside the suspension order and dropped the charges against the district judge on finding that the disciplinary proceedings were not initiated in line with the procedure under the Uttarakhand High Court Vigilance Rules, 2019"It is trite law that when the initiation of a certain proceeding is bad and in violation of the prescribed procedure, all subsequent and consequential proceedings would crumble down as that illegality strikes at the very root of the order," the bench observed..The judge faced suspension in July last year and on August 10, 2023, a chargesheet was filed against him based on a complaint by advocate Hem Vashishtha. The suspension order mentioned that Chaturvedi had misused his official position by acquiring self-serving statements from subordinates and advocates appearing in his court. He was also accused of obtaining call-detail records of a female employee, thereby infringing her personal right to privacy.A show cause notice was eventually served om Chaturvedi in response to the complaint against him. The judge responded by pointing out that the complaint was an anonymous one that was unsupported by an affidavit. He asserted that witness statements were never recorded in his absence and that he would halt the recording of evidence if at all he had to rise from the court for breaks owing to a health condition. He denied the allegations levelled against him and instead urged that an inquiry be initiated into a possible conspiracy against him. Unconvinced by this reply, the High Court placed Chaturvedi under suspension.Chaturvedi then filed a writ petition before the High Court challenging his suspension. .The High Court, in turn, found certain procedural irregularities and other discrepancies in the filing and handling of the complaint against the district judge. "It transpires that the typed complaint was undated, unsigned and not supported by any affidavit wherein the name of the petitioner was written by hand in Hindi, was never placed after the registration before the Administrative Judge," the Court noted.The Court also observed that the High Court's rules require that the complaint first be placed before an administrative judge who would then refer the matter to a committee of judges set up by the Chief Justice. This committee was then required to check whether the allegations merit further inquiry. All of this was not done in the present case, the division bench found. The Court concluded that the very initiation of the disciplinary proceeding was defective and the same would go to the root of the entire controversy."When the entire proceeding, as discussed above, has crumbled down due to non-observance of the procedure prescribed, and the very initiation of disciplinary enquiry has been found to be not in consonance with the Uttarakhand High Court Vigilance Rules, 2019, hence all subsequent consequential proceedings also are vitiated," the Court held..The Court, therefore, allowed the district judge's plea and quashed the suspension order and chargesheet against him. Senior Advocate Rajendra Dobhal along with Advocates Piyush Garg and Shubhang Dobhal represented the petitioner (district judge).Advocate Navnish Negi appeared for the High Court (administrative side)..[Read Judgment]