SC upheld Removal of Ajit Kumar for Outsourcing Judgement Writing

The Supreme Court on 10 March 2011 upheld the Jharkhand governor’s 31 July 2003 order removing Ajit Kumar, a subordinate judge in Garhwa. The Jharkhand trial court judge was removed for outsourcing writing of judgments. A bench of judge comprising Justice Mukundakam Sharma and justice Anil R Dave cancelled Kumar’s plea that he was dismissed from service without the mandatory inquiry into his alleged misconduct.

The Supreme Court pointed out that in cases where the removing authority had recorded the reason in writing for dispensing with the requirement of inquiry before ordering dismissal of a public servant, the order could not be faulted.

The case surfaced in 2003 when the inspecting judge from the Jharkhand HC while on a supervision tour to Garhwa court on May 5, 2003, found Kumar’s judgments unusual. The inspecting judge submitted a report to the Chief Justice of the HC mentioning that Kumar did not prepare judgments on his own and used to get the judgements prepared through somebody else before delivering the judgments.

The matter was then referred to the full court for consideration of the inspecting judge's report and recommended appropriate action. On 18 June 2003, the full court resolved that Kumar can be recommended for removal from the service, without any inquiry as it was felt that it was not practicable in the interest of the institution to hold an inquiry as it could lead to the question of validity of several judgments rendered by him.