Five judicial officers of Uttar Pradesh, four of them serving, have been slapped with contempt notices by the Allahabad High Court on a petition accusing them of having “scandalised the high court” by putting pressure on police with a false claim that they were doing so as per the directions of the state’s highest judicial body.
A division bench comprising justices Dharnidhar Jha and Ashok Pal Singh issued notices on a criminal contempt application filed by one Gaurav Goswami who has moved the court alleging that on February 11, 2009, Avtar Singh, then posted as a civil judge (Junior Division) in Mathura, had written a letter to the Senior Superintendent of the district claiming that he had been designated as the administrator of the Thakur Bankey Bihariji Maharaj temple at Vrindavan.
The petitioner alleged that though no such order, designating Singh as the administrator, had been passed, the judicial officer had “scandalised the high court” by making the false claim and even threatening the police to initiate contempt proceedings if they registered any case related to the temple.
Besides Singh, who is currently posted as a judicial magistrate at Rampur, the petitioner had prayed for impleadment of Vijay Bahadur Yadav, the then district judge of Mathura who is now retired, current district judge Ram Autar Kaushik, current Civil Judge (Junior Division) Amarjeet Singh and Vijay Pratap Singh – currently posted as the District Judge of Mau who was then the additional district judge of Mathura.
The petitioner had alleged that Azad Singh had written the letter to the SSP in connivance with the other judicial officers named as respondents in the contempt application.
Issuing notices to all the five respondents vide order dated September 4, the court had directed that the matter be listed for further hearing after four weeks.
