Agartala, June 24: For the first time in the state’s judicial history, Gauhati High Court sacked a senior judge — Sampa Nath — for misconduct and contempt of court earlier this week.

The order also debarred her from being involved in any judicial or legal work in the future.

In 2010, Nath — then principal counsellor and judge of a family court at Kailasahar in North Tripura — had lashed out at judges of Gauhati High Court and made some allegations against them at a news conference.

She was immediately suspended for acting in violation of the service conduct rules and on contempt charges.

Governor D.Y. Patil has given his assent to the high court’s order.

Law secretary Datamohan Jamatya said Nath had repeatedly made unsavoury comments against the high court judges without “an iota of evidence”.

“Her unfortunate comments did not have any proof or evidence to back them, worse, she made the comments in a formally convened media interaction,” Jamatya said.

“So what has followed is only natural and according to the law of the land. Of course, she can appeal for the dismissal order in the Supreme Court,” he added while hinting that the dismissed judge was afflicted with “psychological problems”.

The law secretary also talked about the recent controversy over the constitution of family courts in Tripura. He said everything would be set to rest by a central notification soon.

Recently, a section of lawyers had raised questions over the validity of family courts functioning in Tripura because they had not been constituted under a notification by Centre.

“The Union ministry of law and justice had asked all state governments to constitute family courts under the provisions of the Family Court Act in a letter dated November 19, 1991, promising to bear 50 per cent of the total expenses to set them up. Accordingly, in the 2002 family courts had been constituted in Tripura and they have been functioning with central grants but, the notification regarding their constitution was supposed to be issued by Centre but did not happen,” Jamatya said.

The matter has already been taken up with the Union ministry of law and justice and the Union ministry will initiate “appropriate action”, Jamatya added. “There is nothing to worry over this because even though the notification has not yet been issued, the orders and decisions passed by the family courts across the state will remain valid” he said.