The Allahabad High Court has affirmed the termination of a judicial officer who was accused of soliciting dowry and trying to exert influence over a junior judge involved in the matter.

The bench, composed of Justices Saumitra Dayal Singh and Donadi Ramesh, emphasized that judicial officers should embody the principles of high priests in the temple of justice. They underlined that any judicial officer who tarnishes the sanctity of their office deserves no leniency.

Dismissing a writ petition filed by Umesh Kumar Sirohi, an additional district judge who was removed from service, the court said, "Any transgression committed by a judicial officer to extract benefit for himself or those to whom he may be closely related would always be dealt with severely".

In the current writ petition, the petitioner contests the penalty order issued by the state government on April 16, 2021. This order resulted in the immediate dismissal from service of Sirohi, who was then serving as an additional district and sessions judge in Lalitpur.

"Once the 'bad fish' is identified, it may not be retained in the 'tank'. No room may ever exist and no margin of error may be permitted as may allow any possibility for a judicial officer to seek to influence another judicial officer in the exercise of judicial function.

"If there exists a temple of justice, the judicial officers must act like its high priests who must not only conduct the rituals involving the discharge of their duties on the dais but they must zealously guard the purity of the temple itself," the court said.

The petitioner faced two charge sheets issued by the administrative side of the High Court in 2016 and 2017. The first charge sheet alleged that Sirohi demanded dowry for his brother's wedding, who was also a judge. Additionally, it accused him of self-inflicting an injury on his hand as part of a scheme to falsely incriminate his brother's wife and her family.

Sirohi's wife filed a police complaint against her sister-in-law and her relatives, prompting a case to be filed against them. Another accusation against Sirohi and his brother was that they attempted to sway the investigating officer in the case by exploiting their official authority.

The second charge sheet leveled accusations against Sirohi, alleging that he attempted to influence an additional chief judicial magistrate involved in the proceedings of the case filed by his wife. Furthermore, he was accused of making baseless claims of bias against the then district judge of Meerut. In 2020, the High Court endorsed the inquiry reports against Sirohi and advised his dismissal from service. Subsequently, the state government approved this recommendation, resulting in his termination from service. This decision is presently being contested in the ongoing writ petition.

After hearing the arguments and examining the records, the court concluded that a case of most serious misconduct had been made out against Sirohi.