The Calcutta High Court has set aside an order of compulsory retirement to a lower court judge, which was issued to him by the HC's administration on charges of overstepping jurisdiction.
Mintu Mallick, a judge and a railway magistrate at the Sealdah court, was suspended in 2007 and in 2013, inflicted a punishment of compulsory retirement for hauling up a driver and a guard of a suburban train for habitual delay.
A bench comprising justices Sanjib Banerjee and Suvra Ghosh Thursday observed that the punishment was "disproportionate" and "shocking" even if the guilt was established.
The bench also imposed a "cost" of Rs 1 lakh on the high court administration and ordered that it will be paid to the appellant judicial officer.
It said that rather than protecting the judicial officer from intimidation and insult by railway employees, the magistrate was pushed to the dock to suffer for wanting to remedy a public wrong.
Following Mallick's action a section of railway staff had held a demonstration and disrupted services at the Sealdah station.
The court directed that the ousted judicial officer be reinstated in service immediately and the appellant be considered to have been in continuous service without any break.
On May 5, 2007, morning, Mallick was waiting for a local train at a station on the Budge Budge-Sealdah route and found that it was running behind its scheduled time. He was on his way to court from Lake Gardens in south Kolkata.
The lower court judge had said that the Up Budge Budge-Sealdah EMU local train, which he had intended to take, was late and on speaking to regular commuters, he learnt that the suburban train was usually delayed due to extraneous reasons.
On the train's arrival, he boarded the driver's cabin and enquired about the reasons for the regular delays.
When he did not get a satisfactory answer, Mallick asked the train's driver and guard to report at the railway magistrate's court in Sealdah, so that the matter can be appropriately addressed, the division bench noted.
Mallick had also asked the railway police at the Sealdah station to ensure that the duo was presented before the railway magistrate's court.
The driver and the guard submitted their report in court, but some railway employees shouted slogans and used abusive language in and around the courtroom, following which another proceeding was drawn under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Following this, railway employees, mostly drivers, staged a protest at Sealdah and disrupted services for over three hours.
The incident led to a discreet inquiry by the high court in 2007, and on the basis of a preliminary report, Mallick, who was then serving as the judicial magistrate of the 4th court-cum-railway magistrate in Sealdah, was suspended.
On completion of the inquiry, the high court administration handed him the punishment of compulsory retirement in 2013.
The deposed judicial officer made an appeal to the governor against the decision of the disciplinary authority, which was disallowed on the basis of opinion given by the high court.