Supreme Court seeks Delhi High Court's response on judicial officer's plea to expunge remarks against him

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of the Delhi High Court through its Registrar General to a petition filed by a judicial officer seeking to expunge certain adverse remarks against him..A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose, PS Narasimha and Aravind Kumar allowed an impleadment application filed by the judicial officer in this regard, and made the High Court a party in the case."Leave granted. The impleadment application ... is allowed as certain practice direction of the Delhi High Court requires to be examined for effective adjudication of these matters. Let the Delhi High Court through the Registrar General to be impleaded as a party respondent in this appeal. Cause title may be amended for this purpose and notice be served upon the Registrar General of the Delhi High Court", the top court directed.The bench added in its order that the hearing in the matter coould be expedited..The top court was hearing a plea by a Delhi judicial officer objecting to remarks made against him by the High Court for criticising the Delhi Police officials over the way in which they conducted a criminal probe.The petition, filed by an Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ), has challenged the High Court's refusal to recall such orders containing the adverse remarks. The remarks were made by Justice Anish Dayal in early 2023.In his orders, Justice Dayal had opined that the "Ld. ASJ (judicial officer) has excessively exaggerated the issues relating to the conduct of the petitioners (police officers) in relation to investigation and keeping of records."Justice Dayal had commented that "the Ld. ASJ ought not to have embarked on an inexorable quest when his original concern had been suitably addressed. The remarks and the phraseology used by the Ld. ASJ is summary in nature, penal in its scope, stigmatizing in its tone and tenor and as already motioned, beyond the ken of expected judicial conduct."On a related note, Justice Swarna Kanta Sharma of the Delhi High Court also recently refused to expunge remarks made in a 2022 order criticising the sessions judge's order in another case where adverse comments were made by him against a Delhi police officer.Justice Sharma emphasised that judicial strictures need to be passed with utmost circumspection..BackgroundThe ASJ, while deciding on anticipatory bail pleas filed by two men accused of stealing sarees from a shop, had passed strictures against the police officials investigating the case.He had also directed the police commissioner to launch an inquiry into the conduct of the officials in question. Further, an explanation was sought as to why crime records bureau data was not updated with respect to the accused.However, the High Court later objected to these remarks by the ASJ and deleted his directions to the police. Thereafter, the High Court refused to stay its order prompting the judicial officer to approach the Supreme Court with an appeal.The judicial officer contended that the High Court failed to consider Rule 13 of the Delhi Police (Punishment and Appeal) Rules, which allow for strictures to be passed against police officials by lower courts.Further, the directions to update crime records bureau data is in line with Supreme Court decisions, the judicial officer's appeal stated..Supreme Court expunges remarks by Gauhati High Court against Assam NIA judge in UAPA case.Before the top court, advocate Sagar Suri appeared for the judicial officer. The plea has been filed through advocate Anil Kumar Mishra..[Read order]