''Unbecoming of a Judicial Officer''. Karnataka High Court recommends disciplinary action against Judge Gayatri, Malur Court.

ORDER dated 29 July 2026. (As deduced from the YouTube stream)

The second respondent is the complainant is said to be a Judicial Officer the CJM Malur. The complaint narrates an incident where the petitioners 1 and 2 overtook the vehicle of the complainant, the judicial officer who was travelling in her private car with her husband.

The overtaking happened by the petitioners 1 and 2 on their two-wheeler. It transpires that the ego of the judicial officer or her husband is hurt. They chased the vehicle i.e. the two-wheeler from their car Innova and stopped them and get down to a squabble. The squabble is captured on a CCTV.

This Court has viewed the footage of the CCTV which involves the judicial officer and her husband indulging in quarrel. The learned SPP submits that who were travelling in the two-wheeler were only the petitioners 1 and 2. But at the behest of the judicial officer, the accused no. 3 who is 70 years old is also taken into custody.

It is surprising as to how in the offences so laid against these petitioners they were taken into custody. Merely because the complainant was a judicial officer, it would not mean that the citizens are treated in the manner at the dictate of the judicial officer.

A perusal of the video that is circulated in the social media would clearly indicate that the judicial officer has behaved in a manner totally unbecoming of the office that she holds. As the office of the judge or the judicial officer is not one that can be donned withing the precincts of the Court room and to be discarded at the threshold of the Court room.

Judicial office is a continuing public trust. It is not inside the court room but it is the outside the Court room that would erode the confidence of the public or sustain the confidence of the public. Every act thus of a judicial officer in the discharge of the judicial duties is not confined to the four walls of the Court Hall but travel beyond the Court Hall when the interaction happens with the public.

If the video is noticed it prima facie clearly indicates that it is wholly unbecoming of a judicial officer to get down from the car, indulge in a quarrel with the common man who only did the crime of overtaking the car of a judicial officer and asking the car to travel slow because they were tavelling on a two-wheeler.

If this has enraged or hurt the ego of the judicial officer, nothing can become a classic illustration of abuse of the office of the judicial officer. Therefore there shall be an interim order of stay of further investigation qua these petitioners.

The act of this judicial officer must be placed before the Hon'ble the Chief Justice for further action.

Registry is directed to place this order before the Hon'ble Chief Justice for further action against the judicial officer.