Prayagraj: While terming the act of a trial judge in Ghaziabad as a “deliberate judicial misconduct”, the Allahabad high court has directed action against him for ignoring a death certificate while deciding a case related to disputed property. The court has also recommended administrative action against the trial judge, characterizing the lower court’s order as a case of “daylight judicial murder”. The court said that that civil judge had deliberately ignored the death certificate to enable the plaintiff (the person who filed the suit) to make illegal gains. Allowing the appeal filed by Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam (GNN), Justice Sandeep Jain in his judgment dated February 24 set aside the civil judge’s May 13, 2025, verdict “as it was passed against a deceased person”. The bench directed the matter to be placed before the Chief Justice of the Allahabad high court for administrative action against the trial judge. The case related to an adverse possession by a tenant, where the civil judge had refused to admit the photocopy of the original owner’s death certificate and directed the GNN to record the tenant’s name as the owner of the property. The HC bench rejected the trial court’s reasoning that the death certificate was inadmissible because it was a photocopy. Justice Jain said, “The reason assigned by the trial court for ignoring the death certificate is shocking, perverse and tainted with extraneous considerations.” In a scathing indictment of the trial judge’s conduct, the court observed, “The conduct of the trial judge is not above board. It is a case of deliberate judicial misconduct, which renders the integrity of the judge doubtful. This is a case which shocks the conscience of this court. It is a case of daylight judicial murder.” Regarding the claim of adverse possession by a tenant, the court held that once a person enters a property as a tenant, they are bound to hand over vacant possession to the landlord and cannot deny the landlord’s title.
