Judge lands in row over ‘copy and paste’

Ahmedabad: A judge has been facing allegations that he copied and pasted the text of one case pertaining to arms recovery in another case related to liquor prohibition. Aggrieved by this method of extracting paragraphs of already prepared orders for convenience on part of the court, the litigant has written to Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court and raised a question on possibility of dispensation of justice.



As per the case details, Kishanlal Bishnoi from Jhalor, Rajasthan was nabbed by the city crime branch sleuths on ring road near Naroda carrying 385 bottles of IMFL in his car on August 5. Bishnoi was booked under the prohibition laws. After his police remand got over, Bishnoi’s uncle Motiram filed a bail application on August 12 seeking release of his nephew.
The metropolitan magistrate in court No 11 rejected the bail application with observation that when such a huge stock of liquor was allegedly found from Bishnoi in the state of Mahatma Gandhi, it would have an adverse impact on society. However, the order came as a shock for the litigant and his lawyer Mohammed Shafi Sheikh. Immediately after obtaining the copy of the order, they dashed off a complaint to the high court against the magistrate. The case was regarding prohibition, but the magistrate recorded submissions stating that Advocate argued that “...the said revolver was not recovered from custody of the accused...He is a resident of Bihar...”
Motiram through advocate Sheikh complained before the high court that the lower court passed the order without hearing, and recorded submissions which were not made by the defence at all. He alleged that the magistrate mentioned a case related to revolver in the prohibition related case and used the text after copying it from an order that was already prepared for some arms recovery case. “The order mentions contentions which were not forwarded by me, because there was no connection of a revolver with this case. We have raised this issue because when the courts begin to copy and paste orders without application of mind, from where litigants can expect justice?”