A Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant made an unexpected public admission of judicial corruption on Wednesday, stating that judges are increasingly issuing a number of orders for unrelated reasons on the eve of their retirements.
The bench of CJI Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi stated, "Petitioner just before retirement started hitting sixes," in response to a petition filed by a Madhya Pradesh principal district judge contesting his suspension ten days before retirement, purportedly due to two court orders he issued. It's a bad trend. I don't want to get into further detail."
Speaking on behalf of the judicial officer, senior attorney Vipin Sanghi claimed to have an outstanding career and a very high grade in yearly secret reports. He was supposed to superannuate on November 30 but was halted on November 19 due to two court orders.
"How can an officer be suspended for judicial orders which can be appealed against and rectified by higher judiciary?" replied Sanghi.
"Disciplinary proceedings cannot be initiated against a judicial officer for passing orders that are incorrect," the bench declared. For this, he cannot be suspended. But if there is obvious dishonesty in the orders?" SC objects to using RTI applications to obtain information about suspension.
On November 30, the judicial officer was scheduled to retire. After raising the retirement age for state employees to 62, the Supreme Court on November 20 ordered the MP government to delay retirement by a year.
On November 30, 2026, the judicial officer would now retire. "The judicial officer was unaware that his retirement age had been raised by one year when he issued those two decrees. Judges are increasingly issuing a lot of orders right before they retire, according to the CJI.
Sanghi was questioned by the bench on why the judicial officer did not go to the High Court to contest the suspension. Sanghi stated that the judicial officer believed it would be preferable to go SC for a fair hearing because it was a full court ruling.
The justices added, "There are so many instances when full court decisions have been set aside by HCs on the judicial side."
Additionally, the bench objected to the judicial officer using RTI applications to request grounds for his suspension. "In this regard, he may have filed a representation.
A senior judicial officer is not supposed to use the RTI process to obtain information. We don't see any reason to consider the petition.
The petitioner may request that the suspension order be recalled by the HC. In four weeks, the HC would determine his representation, the bench declared.
