'Paper Tigers; Judiciary Made Laughing Stock': Bihar Judge Rues After PDJ Transfers Case To 'Shield' DM, SP From Contempt

In an unprecedented and scathing judicial order, an Additional District Judge in Bihar's Begusarai district on Monday formally recorded his anguish after the Principal District and Sessions Judge intervened to recall and transfer from him, an execution file at a 'concluding-stage'. Additional Sessions Judge-III Brajesh Kumar Singh, in an order passed on November 17, 2025, alleged that the case was arbitrarily transferred solely to 'shield' the District Magistrate (DM) and Superintendent of Police (SP) from facing contempt proceedings. The order further states that this act of the Principal District and Sessions Judge violated the principle of judicial independence and that he made the judiciary "a matter of laughing stocks". Comparing the subordinate judiciary to 'paper tigers', Judge Singh added that the court orders appeared to have no binding effect on "mighty and powerful bureaucrats". Briefly put, the controversy erupted on Sunday, November 17 when Judge Singh was in the process of sending a recommendation to the Patna High Court to initiate contempt proceedings against Begusarai DM Tushar Singla and SP Manish. The said order was being proposed as the two officials had failed to comply with a two-year-old order to pay over ₹11.6 lakh in compensation to a road accident victim's family. Meanwhile, a communication arrived before Judge Singh from the Principal District and Sessions Judge stating that he has recalling the execution case to his personal file for hearing and disposal. Though Judge Singh directed to hand over the entire case records to the court of Principal District and Sessions Judge, Begusarai, he noted that the Principal Judge had passed the 'hasty' order of transfer without even looking at the records. He added that it was done despite there being no application from either of the parties. "By passing the order of transfer, Ld. Principal District and Sessions Judge has made the judiciary a matter of laughing stocks in as much as the judges of sub-ordinate judiciary appear to be only paper tigers, having no order passed by them has got binding effect on mighty and powerful bureaucrats", Judge Singh wrote in his order. The Additional District Judge further observed that while the transfer was ostensibly done in the interest of 'so-called administration', Section 24 CPC is 'conspicuously' silent about transfers on such grounds."The alternative phrase "of its own motion" used in section 24 of the CPC cannot be equated with 'the pleasure' of Principal District and Sessions Judge. Ld. Principal District and Sessions Judge, Begusarai has no absolute power to transfer the case when the transferor court is at the stage of concluding the proceedings in that case," he noted. Furthermore, Judge Singh termed the transfer a violation of the 'principle of judicial independence'. "In my opinion, the transfer by Ld. Principal District and Sessions Judge, Begusarai was made to shield the DM, Begusarai and SP, Begusarai from contempt proceeding", the order read. Judge Singh further expressed that his morale was 'badly dampened' by seeing "water thrown at the entire efforts of this court". He also questioned as to why only the poor should be subjected to coercive orders while "mighty bureaucrats are made absolutely immune from judicial process in the lower judiciary".For context, the execution case involves one Manish Kumar, whose guardian was killed in an accident caused by a police vehicle. The court awarded him compensation of around 11.6 lakhs with 6% interest on August 18, 2023. However, despite the passage of two years, the administration failed to release the payment. The court had earlier criticized the state functionaries were for coming up with excuses. In fact, in his order, Judge Singh noted that the government has 'thousands of crores' for elections but no money for the rightful adjudicated claim of the poor petitioner. It may be noted that this is not the first time that both the judges of the subordinate judiciary had come face to face. In an earlier order of September this year, Judge Singh placed on record that the Principal District Judge had called him to his chamber at 5:00 PM and discussed the previous orders. According to the September 23 order, the Principal Judge conveyed a message from the SP, advising Judge Singh not to pass adverse orders because the SP is "very powerful" and that "even the Patna High Court cannot do anything".Judge Singh had ignored the advice then and he mentioned it in the order that he would not tolerate interference and would act “independently and fearlessly”.

'Paper Tigers; Judiciary Made Laughing Stock': Bihar Judge Rues After PDJ Transfers Case To 'Shield' DM, SP From Contempt

Sparsh Upadhyay

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