The Supreme Court has asked the Union government and state chief secretaries to make rules so that detailed verification reports on judicial officers are submitted to high courts by police.
The Supreme Court (SC) has asked the Union government and state chief secretaries to make rules so that detailed verification reports on judicial officers are submitted to high courts by police. The SC wants this done to prevent criminals from entering the judiciary.
The judgment comes on an appeal filed by Khazia Mohammed Muzammil, a former district and sessions judge in Bangalore. Muzammil’s services were not confirmed even after working for three years because the high court did not write his annual confidential report (ACR) on the basis of a police report, which said he had a tainted past.
A bench of justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar dismissed his petition three years ago. The judge had been sacked in 2000.
Muzammil, who was president of lawyers association, had moved the high court in 2000 seeking that the entries against him in the ‘rowdy and goonda register’ at Karwar police station be quashed.
Police justified the inclusion of Muzammil’s name in the list because of his record. His name was entered in the ‘goonda sheet’ on January 8, 1993. According to the police report, the former judge was general secretary of Majlis-Isa-o-Tanzim and in the “habit of harbouring murderers and rioters’’.
The court also noted that he had been charged with “delivering provocative communal speeches, which contributed to communal disturbance in Bhatkal in 1993”. In one of these communal clashes, 19 people were killed and several injured.
Expressing anguish at the high court’s casual approach concerning annual confidential reports (ACR), the apex court said HC didn’t write his reports for two years and in its only report submitted in 1997, it described Muzammil’s performance and conduct as “satisfactory”.
The judges wondered whether the police verification report had been submitted to the state government and the high court before Muzammil took up duties as sessions judge.
“Normally, a person with such antecedents will hardly be permitted to join government service, particularly, the post of judge,’’ the top court said.
Stressing that ACRs must be written diligently, the bench said, “Highly competitive standard of service discipline and values’’ are needed by judicial officers as that quality alone can help them move up in their career. It is mandatory that ACRs be elaborate and timely to avoid inconveniencing the administration, the court held.
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