Additional district and sessions judge (Muzaffarnagar) Ravi Kumar Diwakar, who was in the news recently for awarding death sentences to 23 convicts in five months between April and September this year, has questioned the then district judge’s decision to recall 97 pending cases from his court last month and transfer them to other courts.
Diwakar observed in his 35-page judgement, while acquitting an accused in a nearly decade-old case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on Thursday. He must provide a legal reason for every administrative order issued by him,” the judge wrote, questioning whether the then district judge’s decision to recall cases on August 18, just 13 days before his retirement, without assigning any reason, was justified. Diwakar also cited Section 409 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, concerning the power of a sessions judge to withdraw cases from subordinate courts. While Section 409 gives the sessions judge the power to withdraw a case, Section 409(2) restricts that power once the trial has commenced, according to his interpretation cited in the judgment. The judge also referred to Section 408(1) of the CrPC, which empowers a sessions judge to transfer a case from one criminal court to another within the division.
“A judge’s job is to deliver justice, but if injustice is done to the judge himself, where does he go? “No public servant can behave like a king. The district judge retired at the end of August. On that basis, he questioned the withdrawal of pending case records from his court without any stated reason and termed the action contrary to law.
The judge said the orders issued by the then district judge merely used the word “recall” and did not explain the reasons for withdrawing the cases from his court. If a case has become “part heard”, the judge said, it cannot be withdrawn under the provision.
