Patna HC suspends Motihari CJM

Patna/Motihari: The Patna high court has suspended the Motihari chief judicial magistrate, Sudhir Kumar Sinha, with immediate effect and ordered that during the period of his suspension he should not leave his station without obtaining prior permission.
Sinha has been suspended in the light of disciplinary proceedings against him and will remain suspended till the pendency of the enquiry against him or until further orders from the district judgeship at Motihari.
The HC issued the suspension order on Thursday. According to the order, the judicial officer will get subsistence allowance per the Bihar Service Code during the suspension period.
On October 20 last year, the high court had placed two more judicial officers under suspension due to pendency of disciplinary proceedings against them.
One was additional district and sessions judge Tribhuwan Jha and another was sub-judge III-cum-district legal services authority secretary Ram Sujan Pandey, both posted in Sheohar.
Just three days ago, the HC dismissed 16 staffers of the Patna civil court from service for their alleged involvement in a bribery case shown in a television news channel’s sting operation in November 2017. An FIR was lodged against 17 people, including the 16 staffers, as one had retired from service. These employees were placed under suspension soon after the case came to light in 2017.
Besides issuing the order for suspension on Thursday, the high court posted 21 judicial officers in Patna judgeship after transferring them from various districts.
Eleven civil judges of the senior division were transferred to Patna judgeship as sub-judge-cum-ACJM. Of the 11, one each has been posted at Barh and Paliganj, two at Patna civil court, three at Patna City and four judges at Danapur court.
Two more civil judges of the senior division were transferred to Darbhanga judgeship while one got transferred to Buxar judgeship as sub judge-cum-ACJM.
Four civil judges of the junior division were also transferred as judicial magistrates to Patna judgeship from Katihar, Kishanganj and Purnia. Another civil judge of the junior division got posted in Rohtas judgeship.
Besides them, six additional district and sessions judges got transferred to Patna judgeship from Madhubani, Banka, Supual and West Champaran.