Patna/Chhapra, April 17: The high court today summoned Siwan fast-track court-I judge Ram Darash for acquitting Maharajganj RJD MP Uma Shankar Singh and his son Jitendra Swami in a murder case whose transfer petition was pending before it.
The bench of Justice A. Amanullah issued the directive within hours after Darash pronounced the verdict. The court also asked Darash to file a showcause reply by May 11.
Posting the matter for hearing on May 15, the bench issued notices to the MLA and his son in this connection.
Earlier in the day, Darash acquitted Uma Shankar and Swami of the charge of murdering Bharat Singh, the brother of sitting JD(U) MLA from Maharajganj Damodar Singh, for want of enough evidence.
Swami and Uma Shankar were accused of kidnapping and murdering Bharat Singh during the Assembly election on February 17, 2000. Vijay Singh, another sibling of Damodar and Bharat, had lodged an FIR with Maharajganj police station against them.
Uma Shankar was on bail since then. Swami was in Siwan jail for the past seven years.
Prabhakar Singh, the counsel for Vijay, today brought the development at the Siwan fast-track court to the notice of Justice Amanullah. He said Vijay had filed a petition before the district and sessions judge of Siwan seeking transfer of the case from the fast-track court-I, as he had seen the judge (Darash) having a meal with the accused. The district court on March 16 had dismissed the transfer plea. An appeal was filed against the order in the high court, which had fixed the date for hearing the petition on April 18.
Senior advocates termed the fast-track court’s decision as “judicial indiscipline”, against which the high court might take strict action.
“Once it is intimated that a transfer petition has been filed in the high court, the lower court’s hands are tied and cannot proceed with any order. If any court proceeds and disposes of any case despite the full knowledge that the matter is pending in the high court, then it is a case of gross judicial indiscipline and impropriety,” senior high court advocate Yogesh Chandra Verma told The Telegraph.
Verma said the high court might take disciplinary action or initiate inquiry against the judge concerned. “The court might also ask the judge to opt for compulsory retirement or dismiss him/her from service,” he added.
