The Supreme Court said, “What Kind of Allegation Is This? Asking For Raids Into CJ’s House,” while upholding the dismissal of a judicial officer removed for making false and malicious complaints against High Court judges.
The Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of a judicial officer who was removed from his position due to allegations of making unfounded and malicious complaints against judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court, senior police officials, and other judicial officers.
In 2015, the officer’s wife had also filed a criminal case against the then-Chief Justice of the High Court, Navin Sinha, as well as Justice P. Diwaker and several police personnel and judicial officers.
This incident, along with the “obnoxious” allegations repeatedly made by the former judicial officer, led the Chhattisgarh High Court to conclude that his termination was necessary.
The High Court’s recommendation for his dismissal was subsequently accepted by the state government, resulting in Prabhakar Gwal’s removal from judicial service in 2016. His petitions challenging this decision were later dismissed by the High Court, and the Supreme Court has now upheld the termination.
A bench comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta expressed strong disapproval of Gwal’s allegations.
The Court remarked while addressing Gwal’s counsel,
“What kind of allegation is this? You want to read out aloud? Asking for raids into the house of the Chief Justice,”
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing Gwal, requested an inquiry into the matter, but the Court concluded that such an inquiry was unnecessary.
The Court further indicated that Gwal’s behavior demonstrated he was unfit to hold any government position, especially within the judicial system. Gwal joined the service as a Civil Judge, Class-II in 2005, was promoted to Civil Judge, Class-I in 2012, and later appointed as Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) in Raipur in 2015.
While serving as ACJM, he filed complaints against a sitting MLA and senior police officers without the High Court’s authorization, resulting in multiple show cause notices. Around the same time, his wife made serious allegations of conspiracy and corruption against senior judges and political figures to constitutional authorities.
Initially, he faced a minor penalty of withholding one increment in February 2016, but in March 2016, the Full Court of the High Court determined that due to the repeated complaints and allegations some of which cast doubt on sitting judges it was impractical to conduct a departmental inquiry.
Consequently, the Full Court recommended his dismissal under Article 311(2)(b) of the Constitution. The state government acted on this recommendation and dismissed him in April 2016.
Gwal’s appeal against the dismissal was rejected by a single judge of the High Court in August 2020. When he appealed to a Division Bench, the court noted that the case involved multiple instances of false and malicious allegations against the Chief Justice, senior judges, and other judicial officials.
The Bench concluded there were sufficient grounds to forgo an inquiry, leading to the dismissal of Gwal’s appeal.
Feeling aggrieved by this ruling, he subsequently approached the Supreme Court.
Case Title: Prabhakar Gwal v. State of Chhattisgarh and Anr.
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