BENGALURU: The action of the Presiding Officer (PO) of the Second Additional District and Sessions Court at Chitradurga in handling the POCSO cases against Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, pontiff of Sri Jagadguru Murugharajendra Bruhanmath, shocks its conscience and does not inspire confidence as it is preposterous to say the least, the Karnataka HC said.
“In what trial the PO wanted to summon the accused (pontiff) is still a mystery, as the trial in all the cases is directed to be deferred till the disposal of the petitions (filed by the pontiff questioning the proceedings are reserved for orders by HC) and there is a condition in the grant of bail that the accused shall not enter the jurisdiction of the sessions court.
These two orders are thrown to the wind by the PO, in an act which is on the face of it subversive of judicial discipline,” stated Justice M Nagaprasanna in the order passed on Tuesday.
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This was after advocate KBK Swamy, representing the seer, drew the attention of the court on the conduct of the PO, including issuing a non-bailable warrant and sending the pontiff into judicial custody on Monday in conflict with the HC orders.
“The PO, in an attempt of gross judicial overreach, in a tearing hurry, contrary to the orders passed by High Court and the co-ordinate bench, issues NBW and directs the accused to be taken into judicial custody. The police immediately act and house the accused in judicial custody. All these things happened when the matter was moved before the High Court calling in question the memo filed by the SPP,” the judge said, directing the registry to place this order before Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale for perusal.
The High Court said sensationalising an issue should not become the order of the day, particularly if the concerned courts are hearing such cases. The courts are trite governed by constitutional morality and not public morality. This principle was also given a go-by by the PO which appears to be an attempt to remain in the limelight of a sensational issue. The PO disobeyed the orders passed by HC in a manner that would become contempt of the court on the face of it, the High Court said.
The High Court noted that SPP for POCSO cases filed a ‘frivolous’ memo ignoring HC orders before the
PO to issue an NBW to the accused, saying the accused is not appearing before the court and there is no direction from the HC to appear through video conference. The contents of the memo, on the face of it, are mischievous. The memo suffers from want of bonafide, as the SPP cannot feign ignorance of the orders passed by the HC, the high court said, directing an inquiry into SPP’s conduct.