Mansa court employee will face trial for ‘scandalising judiciary’

THE EMPLOYEE HAS

BEEN ACCUSED OF MAKING A PAGE ‘UGLY FACE OF INDIAN JUDICIARY, LUDHIANA’ AND UPLOADING VIDEOS LAMBASTING JUDICIAL OFFICERS

CHANDIGARH: A Mansa court employee will face trial for allegedly scandalising judiciary by posting videos criticising judges on the social networking site YouTube.

The high court bench of justice Jaswant Singh and justice Sant Prakash on Wednesday framed charges against Harmeet Singh, a clerk.

The employee has been accused of making a page “Ugly face of Indian Judiciary, Ludhiana” and uploading videos lambasting the judicial officers by levelling “false allegations and conveying wrong message” to the public.

In the charges framed, the bench said by uploading video clips on social media, he talked about his transfer and scandalised the names of sitting judges by concocting stories of corruption, bribery and nepotism prevailing in the district judiciary, which court termed “nothing but a figment of (his) imagination”.

“Uploading such videos which scandalises the whole judicial institution and particularly the names of honourable judges of this court (HC) do not come under the purview of liberty of free expression,” the bench observed adding that the move was “certainly an attack on the Judges” integrity, besides it being offensive, intimidatory and malicious.

It was also stated that he uploaded videos and made statements in the media without sanction of the competent authority.

The content of charges were read out before him but he pleaded not guilty, the order said.

As per the reference sent to the high court for taking action against him under Contempt of Courts Act, he joined in 2009 as a clerk at district and sessions division, Ludhiana.

He was posted at Jagraon but kept on pressurising for transfer to Ludhiana.

Later, he was transferred to Mansa.

As the posting was not of his liking, he started filing applications under Right to Information Acts (RTIs) and opened an account on YouTube criticising the judges and making allegations against them, the reference says.

The contempt proceedings were initiated in 2013 and in 2016 he also faced stoppage of four annual grade increments for his conduct.