Supreme Court upholds dismissal of judicial officer over false complaints against High Court judges

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the dismissal of a judicial officer who was terminated from service on allegations that he made false and baseless complaints against judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court, senior police officers and other judicial officers [Prabhakar Gwal v. State of Chhattisgarh and Anr.].

Notably, in 2015, the judicial officer's wife also filed a criminal case against the then-High Court Chief Justice Navin Sinha, then-High Court judge Justice P Diwaker and some police officials, toll plaza employees and other judicial officers.

This incident, in addition to the 'obnoxious ' allegations that were repeatedly made the former judicial officer, eventually led the Chhattisgarh High Court to decide that he should be terminated from service.

The High Court's proposal to terminate him was accepted by the State government as well, leading to Prabhakar Gwal's dismissal from judicial service in 2016.

The High Court later dismissed his petitions challenging this decision. The Supreme Court has now upheld his termination from service.

A Bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta on Friday also expressed strong disapproval over the allegations levelled by Gwal.

"What kind of allegation is this? You want to read out aloud? Asking for raids into the house of the Chief Justice," the Court remarked, while addressing Gwal's counsel.

Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Gwal, urged the Court to conduct an inquiry into the matter. However, Court observed that no such inquiry was warranted.

The Court further remarked that Gwal had demonstrated conduct indicating that he was unworthy of holding any government position, let alone a post in the judicial service.

Gwal joined service as Civil Judge, Class-II in 2005, was promoted to Civil Judge, Class-I in 2012, and later to Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), Raipur in 2015.

While serving as ACJM, he lodged complaints against a sitting MLA and senior police officers without the permission of the High Court, which invited multiple show cause notices.

Around the same time, his wife also made representations before constitutional authorities, levelling grave allegations of conspiracy and corruption against senior judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court and political leaders.

Although he was first awarded a minor penalty of withholding one increment in February 2016, the Full Court of the High Court later resolved, in March 2016, that in view of the repeated complaints and allegations—including those casting aspersions on sitting judges—it was not reasonably practicable to hold a departmental inquiry.

The Full Court, therefore, recommended the dismissal of the judicial officer under Article 311(2)(b) of the Constitution. Acting on this recommendation, the State government dismissed him from service in April 2016.

His plea against the dismissal was rejected by a single judge of the High Court in August 2020.

On appeal, a Division Bench observed that the case was not about one stray act but rather a series of correspondences containing false, scurrilous and malicious allegations against the Chief Justice, senior judges, and other judicial officers. Holding that there were sufficient reasons for dispensing with an inquiry, the Division Bench dismissed Gwal's appeal.

Aggrieved by this order, he had approached the Supreme Court.

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