The Uttarakhand Bar Council has come out in support of suspended Dehradun District Judge Prashant Joshi who was pulled up by the High Court of Uttarakhand earlier for allegedly using a luxury car owned by a man against whom an FIR has been registered for forgery, cheating & criminal conspiracy.
Speaking to the news agency, council’s chairman Surendra Pundir said the council would meet newly-appointed Chief Justice RS Chauhan to revoke Joshi’s suspension when he arrives in Nainital.
Explaining their decision to support Joshi, Pundir said, “Generally, before any adverse action is taken, a show-cause notice is issued. However, in this case, Prashant Joshi was not even heard, which goes against the law.”.
Pundir added that Prashant Joshi is an “honourable & incorruptible judge” & alleged that a conspiracy was being hatched against the judge.”
Pundir said that “We will ask the Chief Justice for his time to discuss the issue & five of our members, including myself & the vice-chairman, will meet the Justice Chauhan very soon".
As reported by the news agency earlier, Judge Joshi used the car of an accused man for travelling to Mussoorie to attend the two-day camp Court.
According to the office memo published by the High Court registrar general Hira Singh Bonal, the vehicle was owned by Kewal Krishan Soin against whom an FIR has been registered at Doon’s Rajpur police station.
The memo said that fitting his official board in the car of an accused might be intended to protect the owner & occupants of the car from “nefarious activities”.
The memo further said the conduct of Joshi touches upon his integrity & “amounts to grave misconduct”. It added that such conduct is “unbecoming of a judicial officer".
Joshi was then attached with the district judgeship in Rudraprayag & has been prevented from leaving the station without prior permission of the HC.
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