The Supreme Court has pulled up Justice Prashant Kumar of the Allahabad High Court and as part of a disciplinary action, the bench of Justice J.B. Pardiwala and Justice R. Mahadevan has not only set aside his order, calling it untenable in law, but has also directed the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court to strip Justice Kumar of all criminal assignments as well.

The Court’s censure came as a consequence of the Judge’s recommendation of a remedy under the criminal justice system in what was, at its core, a civil-commercial dispute.

Facts

Such a judicial intervention stems from the case of Lalita Textiles, the Respondent who filed a criminal complaint against the Appellant before the High Court, claiming that it had supplied manufacturing thread to the Appellant, who had failed to clear an outstanding payment of ₹7,23,711/-.

Following this, the complainant’s statement was recorded, and summons were issued to the Appellant. When the Appellant challenged the proceedings before the High Court, Justice Kumar observed that referring the matter to civil litigation would amount to a travesty of justice, given that the complainant was a "small business firm" and the amount involved was substantial.

“O.P. no.2 appears to be a very small business firm and for him, the aforesaid amount along with interest is a huge amount. In case, subject to filing civil suit, O.P. no.2 will not be in position to pursue the civil litigation. In case, O.P. no.2 files a civil suit firstly, it will take years for it to see any ray of hope and secondly, he will have to put more money to pursue the litigation. To be more precise it would seem like good money chasing bad money. If this Court allows the matter to be referred to civil court on account of civil dispute between the parties, it would amount to travesty of justice and O.P. no.2 would suffer irreparable loss and he might even not be in a position to emerge from the financial constraints to pursue the matter," records the High Court order.

The Supreme Court bench, not mincing their words after perusal of the above observations, stated that, “We are shocked by the findings recorded in paragraph 12 of the impugned order. The judge has gone to the extent of stating that asking the complainant to pursue civil remedy would be very unreasonable as civil suits take a long time, and therefore the complainant may be permitted to institute criminal proceedings for recovery,”

Consequently, the bench set aside the order and remanded it to be reheard by a different bench while also adding to ensure that Justice Kumar sits only on a division bench as a junior judge and is not allotted any criminal matters in the future.

“We further request the Hon'ble Chief Justice to immediately withdraw the present determination of the concerned judge. The concerned judge should be made to sit in a division bench with a seasoned senior of the High Court. In any view of the matter, the concerned judge should not be assigned any criminal determination till he demits office. If at all, he is to be to sit as a single judge, he shall not be assigned any criminal determination. Registry to forward one copy of the order to the Hon'ble Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court.”

Case Title: M/S. Shikhar Chemicals v The State Of Uttar Pradesh And Anr., SLP(Crl) No. 11445/2025