Patna High Court quashes Justice Kumar's 'controversial' order
Patna: The Patna High Court on Monday quashed its judge Rakesh Kumar's last week's order, comprising stinging observations over alleged corruption in judiciary, but restored his judicial work.
Making stinging observation over the alleged corruption in judiciary, Justice Kumar had last week ordered a CBI probe and an enquiry by the Patna district judge into how a former IAS officer whom he had denied anticipatory bail in a corruption case last year was granted regular bail by a trial court.
A full bench of the high court, headed by Chief Justice A P Shahi, set aside Justice Kumar's order, terming it as an instance of judicial and administrative overreach and a complete nullity".
The bench declared the order "to be coram non judice .
The high court's full bench, also comprising justices Anjana Mishra and Anil Kumar Upadhyay, however, restored judicial work to Justice Kumar that he had been stripped of the day he passed his order questioning the grant of regular bail to the former IAS officer by the trial court.
Justice Kumar was divested of his judicial work by court administration on the day he passed the order, which was suspended very next day by a special 11-judge bench.
The development came a day after Justice Kumar and Chief Justice A P Sahi reportedly met Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Sunday.
Justice Kumar had passed August 28 order, taking suo motu cognizance of the bail granted by a lower court to the retired IAS officer in a corruption case.
In his order, Justice Kumar had also directed Patna district judge, to inquire and submit his report as to how the former bureaucrat K P Ramaiah was granted bail.
The order had also asked the CBI to investigate the alleged corruption in the civil court here, flagged in a sting operation conducted by a private news channel.
Justice Kumar had also directed that copies of his order be sent to the CJI, the apex court collegium of judges and the Prime Minister's Office besides the Union Law Ministry.
Setting aside Justice Kumar's order on Monday, the high court's full bench headed by Chief Justice Shahi said, "A wrong order requires setting aside if it has travelled beyond the objective boundaries and has far-reaching consequences in setting a trend which no law recognizes .
The passing of such an order has the inherent danger of creating uncertainty and a feeling that all things can be set right on exercise of authority by a judge even though he may not have legal power to do so, the court said.
We may only observe that there are regrettable limits and compulsory restraints that control jurisdiction. The jurisdiction to summon a file and then to pass strictures, comments and issuing administrative directions were all totally outside the scope of the authority of the learned judge, the court added.
Terming Justice Kumar's order as "absolutely unsustainable", the high court's full bench said, "It suffers from a dual incompetence of exercise of administrative as well as judicial authority."
"It should be kept in mind that the (right to) freedom of expression and the legal authority to express and adjudicate are entirely different concepts," the bench observed.
It said while passing "the impugned order", Justice Kumar had assumed jurisdiction on the suspicion of the manner in which the regular bail had been granted by the court below which may be a matter of administrative enquiry but certainly did not give rise to any cause of action or jurisdiction to be assumed by the learned single -judge (bench) .
The order of the learned single-judge (bench) does not refer to any provision of law, much less the Criminal Procedure Code or the High Court Rules, under which he could assume this authority," pointed out the high court's full bench.
"The entire order nowhere speaks of any notice having been issued or any party having been heard. This, therefore, is a clear case of violation of principles of natural justice .. which is yet another reason for us to interfere with the order, the court added.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
