High Court Upholds Disciplinary Action Against Clerk for Missing File
The Allahabad High Court has upheld disciplinary action against a clerk whose error led to a judicial file disappearing from the Rampur Chief Judicial Magistrate's office. A bench led by Justice Aneesh Kumar Gupta considered the lapse a serious offense, showing no leniency towards the clerk. Following a departmental inquiry into the missing file, the disciplinary authority had ordered the withholding of four annual salary increments from the petitioner.
The clerk, aggrieved by this decision, appealed to the appellate authority, but the appeal was dismissed. He then challenged the punishment by filing a writ petition in the High Court. The High Court stressed that a judicial file going missing or becoming unavailable from records is an extremely grave offense that impacts the administration of justice and must be handled sternly. The case originated when a complaint file could not be traced despite repeated opportunities given to the staff, leading to an inquiry where the petitioner, the clerk on duty at the time, was held responsible for misconduct under the UP Government Servant Conduct Rules of 1956.
Arguments by the petitioner's counsel claimed that work allocation was not strictly followed, and responsibility for the missing file was not definitively fixed. However, the High Court, emphasizing the limited scope of judicial review in service matters, found no procedural irregularities in the disciplinary actions taken. The court noted that there was no allegation of the petitioner being denied a hearing, nor was an argument made about the disproportionality of the punishment. Concluding that it found no illegality in the orders of the disciplinary and appellate authorities, the Allahabad High Court dismissed the writ petition. The case was titled Mahavir Sagar vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and others.
Source: CourtBeat News (Kannada)
