By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun/Nainital, 22 Sep: Taking a strict stand, the Nainital High Court has ordered compulsory retirement of 3 judges of the Higher Judicial Services in the state. The action to forcibly retire three Higher Judicial Service officers follows approval from the Governor, Lt General Gurmit Singh (Retd) of the recommendation made by Chief Justice Justice Vipin Sanghi. Orders for compulsory retirement of the three judges were issued late last evening. The notification in this respect was uploaded on the High Court website late last evening.
Those who have been compulsorily retired include Rajendra Joshi, Presiding Officer of Labour Court in Haridwar, Shamsher Ali, Presiding Officer of the Labour Court in Kashipur, and Shesh Chandra, the Fourth Additional District and Sessions Judge in Dehradun. The order for compulsory retirement has been issued in accordance with the provisions laid down under Rule 25 (a) of Uttarakhand Judicial Service Rules 2004 (As revised in 2016). The orders have been issued under the signatures of Secretary Shailesh Bagoli.
This is not the first time that such an action has been taken against judicial officers in Uttarakhand. In fact, more than 12 judicial officers have been compulsorily retired on complaints of irregularities and corruption. The judges that have been retired, so far, faced serious allegations such as misconduct, corruption, inducement and abuse of office. In fact, a female judicial officer who was on probation was also dismissed on allegations of harassment and exploitation of a teenage girl working and living in her home after these were proved during the investigation. Other charges also include misuse of position and deliberate delay in disposing of cases.
However, while action has been taken to compulsorily retire the judicial officers in question, no other sentence has been ordered in any of the cases dealt with by the High Court for irregularities or corruption.
