The Patna High court on August 28th has withdrawn all the judicial work of the senior seating judge of the Patna Highcourt – Rakesh Kumar, over his scathing remark made on the legal system of Bihar while hearing a corruption case against a former IAS officer, KP Ramaiah.
An 11-judge bench also quelled Justice Kumar’s orders and ruled that no decision of him would come into effect. The Patna High Court Chief Justice issued a notice that reads, “All matters pending before Justice Rakesh Kumar, sitting singly including tired up/part-heard or otherwise stand withdraw with immediate effect.”
According to the Advocate General of Bihar, Lalit Kishore, the 11 judge bench led by AP Sahi held that the order passed by Justice Kumar and his remarks on the credibility of the judicial system is an attack to the judicial hierarchy, judicial integrity and majesty of the court.
Earlier in the day, Justice Kumar said, “A ‘corrupt officer’ like Ramaiah secured bail as a vacation judge heard his case in place of the regular judge of the Vigilance Court, who was away for a day.” Kumar, during the proceeding, raised questions on Ramaiha’s bail that was being granted by the lower court when the High Court and the Supreme Court had ordered otherwise because of the serious accusations made on Ramaiah.
Justice Kumar further added in the 20 pages order, “There were instances of crores of the taxpayers’ money being spent on renovation and furnishing bungalows of judges as well as nepotism.”
The retired IAS officer was accused of taking the bribe of staggering 5 crores from the Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Mission, a government scheme of the scheduled castes and tribes. He filed a pre-bail request that was rejected at the higher level of courts but eventually granted by the lower court in May.
The case was given to Justice Kumar who had earlier served as a CBI counsel in the Patna High Court during the multi-crore fodder scam case proceeding against the then Chief Minister and RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
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