Wrong order by a Judge – Can compensation claimed?
Basic facts:
Case of the petitioner is that he was arrested without any reasonable cause and on the basis of a wrong judicial order; he was remanded to judicial custody.
Later on, the entire proceedings were quashed by the Hon’ble High Court of Kerala in a petition filed by him alleging that the case was instituted with mala fide intention.
Petitioner then approached the Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Commission awarded a compensation of Rs.50,000/- to the petitioner and ordered the Police Officer, who made the wrong arrest, to pay the said amount.
Thereafter, petitioner has approached the Hon'ble High Court seeking compensation and initiation of disciplinary proceedings against the Judicial Officer who passed the remand order.
Learned Single Judge partly allowed the writ petition by ordering to pay and an amount of Rs.25,000/-.
Aggrieved, the petitioner, State and the concerned Judicial Officer, who though was not heard and was aggrieved with the order, filed the present writ appeal.
The question that arose for consideration in the writ appeal was whether the writ petitioner is liable to be compensated for the injury allegedly suffered by him due to the alleged wrong exercise of judicial power by the concerned Judicial Officer.
The Division Bench of the High Court consisting of Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman (who authored the judgment) held that in the absence of any malice or bias of any kind alleged against the Judicial Officer, no compensation can be ordered to be paid notwithstanding the fact that there was allegation of non-application of mind in passing the order
Court further held that principles of Law of Torts would apply in cases involving compensation for violation of fundamental rights.
However, when a Judicial Officer is acting judicially, even if he commits an error and passes an erroneous order, he would be protected from legal action.
Except in exceptional circumstances where a Judicial Officer misuses his judicial power for personal gains or for any wrongful act done by him while acting in his personal capacity, a Judicial Officer is protected from legal action of whatever nature for wrong orders rendered by him.
The judgment is well written and the most interesting thing about the judgment was that it did not reproduce verbatim from the quoted judgments, though many precedents on the point were referred to, and only the ratio of the judgment was re-produced.
2016 (1) KHC 518
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