Patna High Court through Registrar General issued guidelines on Thursday 22nd October for grant of permission of Judicial Officers/Judges of the subordinate judiciary for the private foreign visit.
Registrar General, Patna HC Navneet Kumar Pandey issued a notification which states that “the Hon’ble Court has been pleased to issue the guidelines for grant of permission to the Judicial Officers/Judges of the Subordinate Judiciary for private foreign visits.”
Guidelines for Private Foreign Visit of Judicial officers of Subordinate Courts of Bihar:
1. Only on prior permission of the Hon’ble court Judicial Officers of subordinate board can go abroad. Officers will have to obtain permission from the Hon’ble court for obtaining visa and tickets to visit abroad well in advance.
2. Request for Foreign visit shall not be considered for the period of the court working days except in very exceptional circumstances like medical treatmentof self, family members, parents, dependents or death of any relative or any other occasion where personal presence of Judicial Officer cannot be dispensed with. The period of foreign visit during working hours of courts under such exceptional situation shall not exceed 15 days.
3. Under the suspension/departmental proceedings, any request for foreign visit of the officer during his suspension/departmental proceeding shall not be allowed, except in very exceptional circumstances mentioned in point no.02.
4. Request for foreign visit for pleasure/site seeing may be allowed for the period pre-declared in holiday/vacation.
5. Request of such foreign visit should be sent to the court in advance not less than two months prior of the proposed visit before applying for Visa except in exceptional conditions.
6. Judicial officer shall disclose details of his passport, if any, source of funding, estimated expenditure to be incurred on foreign visit and relation of family members in a destination country where the visit is proposed when applied for permission for foreign visit.
7. Applications for grant of permission to undertake foreign visit and for sanction of leave for visiting abroad shall be furnished separately and be forwarded to the Registrar General through proper channel.
8. Overstay abroad without leave or extended leave of officers availing foreign visit shall not be condoned. Resignation will also not be accepted of officers while abroad on foreign visit. Save and except unavoidable extraordinary situation, such overstay or application for resignation would entail disciplinary proceeding against the officer concerned
9. The Applicant should give an undertaking/declaration that the particular foreign visit/tour is not at the behest of or financed by the persons or institutions/associations who are litigants before the courts of law and particularly in the area where the Judicial Officer is posted and is functioning.
10.A concerned judicial officer seeking such permission should certify that the judicial work of the said Judicial Officer during the proposed period of visit, will not be hampered in his/her absence if the judicial officer is permitted to visit foreign countries.
11. Request for permission to visit abroad under these rules may be allowed by Hon’ble the Chief Justice. Apart from that any rules or guidelines issued by the Central Government/State Government shall also apply.
