Travelling Abroad Without Permission: SC Affirms Sacking Of Judicial Officer

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in February, last year, upheld the decision to sack the judicial officer.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the termination of a judicial officer, who travelled to Doha and the United Kingdom in 2019 without obtaining the requisite permission.

The matter came up before a bench comprising Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti. The bench said the judicial officer should not be in the judicial system as he had tampered with documents while questioning his conduct. The bench said the petitioner has even made attempts to keep things away from the court. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, represented the petitioner Abhinav Kiran Sekhon before the apex court.

During the hearing, Gonsalves tried to convince the bench regarding the behaviour of his client. However, the bench said it is not willing to accept this contention and refused to go into the case files. The bench said if it were to entertain this petition then it will send a wrong signal and pointed out that the petitioner has not brought complete facts before it.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in February, last year, upheld the decision to sack the judicial officer. The high court had refused to interfere with its decision taken on the administrative side.

The high court had observed that an officer, who repeatedly committed acts of insubordination or suppression during the period of probation, would continue with such acts and inappropriate behaviour unabated after confirmation, setting a bad example for other judicial officers. Sekhon joined the judicial service in April 2016 and completed training in April 2017.

It was revealed in the investigation, initiated after a random checking exercise by the administrative judge of Patiala district courts, that Sekhon had undertaken two trips to Doha and the UK without prior permissions and subsequently, when asked to explain, had tried to misrepresent facts.