Wednesday, September 26, 2018

The Gujarat HC has put the brakes on salary increments for the principal judge of Ahmedabad family court

The Gujarat HC has put the brakes on salary increments for the principal judge of Ahmedabad family court, M J Parikh, for the next two years. The HC punished the judge for making his stenographer draft judgments and then signing those judgments blindly.

Judge Parikh has approached the judicial side of the high court against the inquiry and punishment. A bench of Chief Justice R S Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi on Wednesday issued a notice to the high court and the state government on the judge’s petition.

Judge Parikh was slapped with the charges during his stint as the principal district judge in Junagadh in 2011-12. The high court received anonymous complaints against him following which the high court registrar (vigilance) held an inquiry, which found Parikh guilty on a few counts. However, the high court’s standing committee exonerated Parikh of four charges, holding him guilty of only making his stenographer write judgments.

The standing committee of Justice M R Shah and Justice Akil Kureshi placed the judge’s matter before the chamber committee, which recommended the ‘reduction at 2 stages in the time scale of pay for a period of two years or till his retirement, whichever is earlier’. Judge Parikh is due to retire in November 2019. The decision was communicated to the state government, which passed an order to this effect on June 27, 2017. Thus, Parikh is not likely to get increment till retirement.

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