Calcutta HC Reinstates Compulsorily Retired Lower Court Judge, Imposes Cost Of Rs 1 Lakh On Itself

Setting aside a punishment of compulsory retirement handed to a lower court judge, the Calcutta High Court imposed a “cost” of Rs one lakh on itself, reports Times of India.

The HC division bench of Justices Sanjib Banerjee and Justic Suvra Ghosh directed immediate reinstatement of the judge and ordered that “costs assessed at Rs 1 lakh to be paid by the high court to the appellant.”

According to the report, the HC administration had suspended Mintu Mallick, a judge and railway magistrate at the Sealdah court, in 2007 and later given him the punishment of compulsory retirement in 2013 for hauling up a driver and a guard of a suburban train for habitual delay.

A section of the railway staff had held a demonstration and disrupted services at the Sealdah station following Mallick’s action.

Observing that the punishment given to Mallick was "disproportionate" and "shocking" even if the guilt was established, the division bench of the HC on 4 July said that rather than protecting the judicial officer from intimidation and insult by railways employees, the magistrate was made to suffer for wanting to remedy a public wrong.

The HC ordered that ousted judicial officer be reinstated in service immediately and also directed that he be considered to have been in continous service without any break.

The division bench also directed payment of 75 per cent of the salary that he would have earned had he remained in service.