Without preparing judgment, judge can't pronounce concluding portion: SC

A judicial officer cannot pronounce the concluding portion of a judgment in the open court without the entire text of the judgment being prepared or dictated, the Supreme Court has said.

The top court also directed the sacking of a trail court judge in Karnataka found guilty of pronouncing the outcome of a case without preparing the judgment.

The SC direction came on a plea filed by the Registrar General of the High Court of Karnataka who had challenged the HC's division bench order on the judge's reinstatement by quashing the termination order passed by its full court.

Coming down heavily on the Karnataka High Court for "white-washing" serious charges, a SC bench of justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal said the conduct of the judge is unacceptable.

"It is true that some of the charges revolve around judicial pronouncements and the judicial decision-making processes and that they cannot per se, without anything more, form the foundation for departmental ...