High Court: Character Of The Person Seeking Appointment In District Courts Should Be Impeccable

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court upheld the dismissal of a Group “D” employee of the District Court, Etah, stated  that any person seeking appointment to a post in the District Court should have an impeccable character and should not have any criminal record. The court said that any person without a clean record can harm this institution.

Dismissing the special appeal filed by Ramsevak, a division bench of Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Justice Prashant Kumar , said that  candidate seeking appointment to the post of District Court Judge should be of impeccable character and honest and should have a clean antecedent.

The court held  that if a person whose integrity is doubtful or his past is not clean is appointed, then it can harm the institution. Because if the court records are kept in the wrong place or tampered with, it will cause great prejudice to the litigants and the public’s confidence in the judicial system will also be shaken, which will ultimately cause serious damage to the reputation of the institution.

The high court observed that the appellant had received a notice under section 41-A CrPC in January itself and was therefore aware of the criminal case at the time of filing the affidavit. “Verification of character of the employee should be ensured by the employer. The character of the candidate seeking appointment in the district court should be impeccable and his antecedents should be clean. If a person, whose integrity is doubtful and his antecedents are not clean, he cannot claim the appointment as it may adversely affect the institution,” the court said.

It was further  observed that having a criminal history does not automatically cancel the candidature of a person. Since there was deliberate concealment of facts in the present case, the Court held that the appointment by the employer is liable to be canceled as deliberate concealment would create adverse effect on the institution.

Rule 15 of the Uttar Pradesh State District Court Service Rules, 2013 was cited, which states, “No person shall be appointed unless the appointing authority is satisfied that he is of good character and is fit in all respects for appointment to the service.”

The High Court relied on various decisions of the Supreme Court to hold that a high standard of honesty and conduct is required from an employee dismissed the special appeal.