Patna: The Patna high court has stayed an order imposing a Re 1 fine on the present Saran SP for contempt of court while he was posted in Rohtas.On Sept 29, an additional sessions judge in Sasaram held the officer guilty of disobeying an order to register an FIR against a person who had given false evidence in a criminal case decided in 2023.A division bench of justices Rajeev Ranjan Prasad and Sunil Dutta Mishra termed the order “peculiar, unprecedented and violative of procedural integrity”, noting that the matter was already pending before the high court.The issue was raised by advocate general (AG) Satya Darshi Sanjay, who described the trial court’s action as an example of “judicial indiscipline”. He argued that after delivering its final verdict in the criminal case, the trial court had no jurisdiction to initiate further proceedings on the same matter, particularly when an appeal was pending before the high court after being admitted in Nov last year.In its Oct 9 order, made public on Friday, the high court directed the Rohtas principal district judge to submit all records and orders relating to the contempt proceedings.The bench also directed the registry to list the appeal among the top five cases for hearing on Nov 25.
