LUCKNOW: A Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has referred the matter of 15 trainee judicial officers to the Chief Justice for nomination of another bench to adjudicate the controversy afresh regarding their reinstatement because two judges of the division bench recorded contrary findings and orders as to whether the officers should be taken into service or not. The trainee judges had been dismissed in September 2014 by a Full Court of the HC after they were found involved in a drunken brawl at a city resort.The trainee judges had moved the HC challenging their removal from judicial service. The petitions filed by the trainee judges individually were being heard by a two-judge ( division) bench. Deciding the petitions, Justice SS Chauhan , on the eve of his retirement on July 4, 2108, allowed the 15 petitions and directed their reinstatement on the ground that the trainee judges were not given opportunity of hearing before being removed with a blot on their career and that the punishment was too harsh for these inexperienced judges. However, the second judge of the bench, Justice Rajnish Kumar dismissed the all the petitions, thus upholding the dismissals.Accepting the plea of HC administration’s lawyer Gaurav Mehrotra, Justice Kumar held that a probationer or a temporary servant can be discharged if it is found that he is not suitable for the post which he is holding. It is also settled that regular departmental enquiry is not required in each and every case. In his separately written verdict, Justice Kumar said, “A judicial officer is required to maintain high standards of probity, morality and propriety in his judicial duties as well as in personal life. Once a person has been appointed as a judge, he must accept restrictions on conduct and behavior which would be viewed as burdensome and onerous by an ordinary citizen. He is required to maintain high standards of conduct.”Since both the judges did not have consensus view, the matter was sent to CJ for nomination of another bench to hear afresh and decide the matter.

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