Motihari, July 17: Raxaul sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) Mahesh Prasad Singh ordered an accused under the Essential Commodities Act to pay Rs 5,000 as fine and get the Gandhi Maidan cleaned.

The order, in a way, was symbolic for Singh himself wants to clean up the legal system. He believes in reformative judgment as an alternative to punishments.

On July 10, he also asked the accused to procure a certificate from the Nagar Parishad and produce it in court within 25 days.

Earlier, in a case of power theft, he ordered the accused to deposit Rs 2,500 with the president of the District Bar Association for putting up anti power theft posters on the walls of the court premises. He, too, was asked to produce a certificate, procured from the Bar office.

In a similar case, this court fined the accused Rs 5,000 and asked him to deposit the amount with the Areraj temple, to be utilised for buying school bags for students. The accused was ordered to get a certificate from the head priest.

The SDJM had assumed office here in August 2011. Sources said the innovative measures have brought down the number of complaints in his court. On the out-of-the-book judgments, Singh said: “I feel it is high time we changed the justice delivery system of the country. Reforms would deter people from illegal activities. Even high courts and the Supreme Court are conscious of reformative judgments.”

He added: “As a judicial officer I have found that nearly 90 per cent of the complaints are filed on false and concocted grounds. Hence, I started a trend of booking complaints against people whose allegations were found to be false.”

K.L. Prasad, an advocate, said: “The reformative judgments should be welcomed for a better legal system.”

Anil Kumar Singh, another advocate and the assistant secretary of the District Bar Association, said: “The reformative steps have helped restore the people’s faith in the judiciary.”