MP High Court Recommends Enquiry Against Trial Judge For Non-Compliance With High Court Orders

The Madhya Pradesh High Court has recommended an enquiry against a Trial Court Judge who failed to comply with the High Court Orders.The bench of Justice GS Ahluwalia observed;"Although the trial Court might be right in obtaining spot inspection report, but that report should have been considered after recording evidence of witnesses and the trial Court should have come to a conclusion as to whether temporary injunction order was breached by any of the parties or not, but nothing of that sort has been done. Apart from that, the trial Court kept the matter pending for considerably long time. Under these circumstances, this Court is of considered opinion that conduct of the trial Judge requires an enquiry". An application was filed under Order 39 Rule 2A CPC alleging defiance of the interim order passed by the High Court on March 15, 2023. The High Court directed the parties to maintain the status quo. However, despite the order directing the status quo, the respondents started construction over the disputed property. Since the dispute pertained to the breach of the interim order, the High Court directed the Trial Court to conduct an enquiry regarding the violation of the interim orders, to be completed within 4 months. Thereafter, on October 8, 2025, the High Court found that the enquiry report was not received and thus the Trial Court was directed to immediately send the enquiry report. Thus, on November 12, 2025, the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Bhind, was directed to issue necessary directions to the Trial Court not to show any lethargic attitude towards the High Court's directions, specifically when more than one year and six months have passed. The High Court later found that the Trial Court did not conduct any enquiry and obtained a spot inspection report from the Executive Engineer, PWD and forwarded the same t the High Court. Thus, on January 19, 2026, the High Court passed the following order;"Accordingly, the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Bhind is directed to submit a report after seeking an explanation from the trial Court as to whether the matter has been dealt with by the trial Court in accordance with order dated 04.04.2024. 8. If the Principal District and Sessions Judge Bhind is of the view that the trial Court has acted in complete defiance of order dated 04.04.2024, then he can also take explanation from the trial Court and shall forward the same to this Court.9. Furthermore, on multiple ocassions, it has been held by this Court that whenever any report is sent by the trial Court, it must route through the Principal District and Sessions Judge of the concerning district but it appears that the trial Court has forwarded the report directly to this Court which did not give any opportunity to Principal District and Sessions Judge to go through the report and to find out as to whether the report is in accordance with order issued by this Court or not.10. The Principal District and Sessions Judge Bhind is also directed to comment upon forwarding of this report by trial Court directly to this Court without routing through the Office of Principal District and Sessions Judge". The High Court noted that a detailed enquiry report was submitted by the Principal District and Sessions Judge and found that the Trial Judge was negligent in discharging his duties. The explanation provided by the Trial Judge was also found insufficient. The High Court therefore directed that an enquiry ought to be conducted into the actions of the Trial Judge. Accordingly, the High Court directed the Office to send a photocopy of the order sheets of this court, a copy of the enquiry report of January 31, 2026 and the explanation given by the concerned judge to the Registrar General to place the same before the Chief Justice for any disciplinary action, if required against the said officer. Thus, the case was listed for August 20, 2026, for further consideration. Case Title: Ashok Kumar v Smt Meera Devi [MCC-39-2022]For Applicants: Advocate Anand V. BhardwajFor Respondents: Advocate Abhishek Singh BhadoriyaClick here to read/download the Order

MP High Court Recommends Enquiry Against Trial Judge For Non-Compliance With High Court Orders

Jayanti Pahwa

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