The division bench of Uttarakhand High Court has canceled the suspension order of District and Sessions Judge Dhananjay Chaturvedi and the charge sheet related to his investigation.
The petition of District Judge Dhananjay Chaturvedi was heard on December 29 in the division bench of Justice Rakesh Thapliyal and Justice Pankaj Purohit. According to the information, the Registrar General of the High Court had suspended him by an order dated July 24, 2023. On August 10 last year, Dhananjay Chaturvedi had challenged the charge sheet.
He was accused of recording the statements of witnesses during his tenure as the District and Sessions Judge of Chamoli, which is a violation of the High Court rules. Apart from this, they obtained the call details of the phone of Class IV female employee Manisha Sati, which is a violation of the privacy and personal rights of a woman. This is also against the Uttarakhand Government Service Rules. In this case, an advocate named Hem Vashishtha had complained to the Registrar Vigilance of the High Court and the Chief Justice of the High Court,In which there was also a pen drive of the recording done in the court.
In the case, the petitioner’s advocate told the court that the advocate who has sent this complaint is not registered with the District Bar Association Chamoli. Apart from this, there is neither date nor signature in the complaint letter. Apart from that, according to the rules of the High Court, it is necessary to make a complaint against a judicial officer through an affidavit, whereas this has not happened in this case. Apart from this, instead of sending the complaint letter from Chamoli post office, it has been sent from Haldwani post office.
It has been said in the petition that he has been deliberately implicated in this case. It has been said that the conduct of Group D employee Manisha Sati is suspicious. She was in touch with Chamoli’s previous district judge Narendra Dutt. On the night of May 6, his location was found near the residence of the said judicial officer in Dehradun. It is suspected that this conspiracy was hatched due to the seniority dispute between the said judicial officer and the officers of his batch. This Group D female employee may have been used for this.
According to the petitioner, he is suffering from kidney stones due to which he has to go to the toilet many times. It is possible that this problem may have been taken advantage of in video recording. On the basis of these facts and the circular issued by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on December 22, 2014, the High Court has issued a suspension order against District and Sessions Judge Dhananjay Chaturvedi on the basis that it is necessary to give an affidavit to the complaint of a judicial officer. Charge sheet cancelled.