Madras High Court upholds removal of District Judge in Sankararaman murder case

The Madras High Court on Monday refused to interfere with the punishment of removal from service imposed upon an Additional District Judge for having participated in a conference call with Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Mutt when the latter had been arrayed as the prime accused in the Sankararaman murder case.

A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar dismissed a 2023 writ petition filed by the former district judge, A. Rajasekaran, challenging the punishment imposed on him on

November 7, 2022.

It said the punishment could not be construed as disproportionate to the gravity of the proved charges and therefore it had to be necessarily upheld.

A preliminary inquiry was conducted to ascertain the truth with the assistance of forensic science experts and the charges had been framed only after finding prima facie material.

The delinquent officials (including the present writ petitioner and a Section Officer in the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court N. Ramesh Kumaar, who too had participated in the conference call) had submitted their explanations. The explanations submitted by them were taken into consideration by the disciplinary authority before the final decision to remove the petitioner from service was taken by the Full Court (a body of all judges) of the Madras High Court, the Bench pointed out.

“The case of the petitioner was considered at all levels, including the high level administrative committee of the High Court. Thus, this court does not find any infirmity in respect of the procedures followed in the departmental disciplinary proceedings,” the Bench said before dismissing the writ petition as devoid of merits.