After being given the marching orders by the Delhi High Court, a sacked Delhi district court judge, who is the son of a sitting Meghalaya High Court judge, failed to receive any relief from the Supreme Court on Friday.
Probed and found guilty of entering into questionable financial dealings by a Full Bench of the Delhi High Court on August 10, the Supreme Court put its stamp of approval on the decision to terminate Nitesh Gupta. He was undergoing probation with the Patiala House Courts and was slated to take over as Metropolitan Magistrate at Tis Hazari Courts four days later.
The Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha told senior advocate Amit Sibal who appeared for the terminated judicial officer, "We think you (Gupta) should practice law and not decide law," leaving the lawyer with no choice but to withdraw the petition. Although Sibal wished to put forth his client's defence, the bench refused.”
The order by the apex court has gone down well with the recent efforts taken by the Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal to clean up corruption within its ranks. Gupta was a probationary judge who was to be made
permanent on August 14 this year with his first posting as Metropolitan Magistrate.
Allegations surfaced against him that he took interest-free loans to the tune of Rs 5.73 crore about which he had no explanation to offer to the Full Court of Delhi HC. What added injury to insult was the fact that he is the son of Justice Ved Prakash Vaish, a sitting judge of Meghalaya High Court who has a long association with the Delhi High Court.
He was appointed as Registrar (Vigilance) at the Delhi High Court on May 1, 2010 and then as Registrar-General in November 2010. He was elevated as an Additional Judge of Delhi HC on April 17, 2013 and served for three years till he was transferred and took oath as a judge of Meghalaya HC on May 23, 2016.
The decision to terminate him was taken without assigning any reason. According to Delhi HC Registrar-General Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Rule 22 of the Delhi Judicial Services Rules, 1970 allows judicial officers on probation to be terminated without assigning any reasons.
The same day, the decision was communicated to the office of lieutenant Governor who issued a Gazette notification terminating his services.