J U D G M E N T

The petitioner while working as Lower Division Clerk at Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Nadapuram stabbed one of his colleagues. The Police registered a crime. The Sessions Court found that the petitioner committed the offences under Sections 353 and 324 of Indian Penal Code, 1860 (for short, IPC). However, invoking Section 84 of IPC, the petitioner was acquitted. That means, the Sessions Court accepted the plea of the petitioner that he was of unsound mind at the time of committing the offence. The Sessions Court, however, ordered release of the petitioner on him executing a bond under Section 335 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. The finding of the Sessions Court that the petitioner committed the offences under Sections 353 and 324 IPC was challenged by the petitioner before this Court in Crl.M.C No.174 of 2004. This Court, after noting the purport of Section 84 of IPC, vacated the said finding.

2. The disciplinary authority, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kozhikode, pursuant to disciplinary proceedings, imposed a penalty of reduction of seniority to a lower rank for five years from the date of incident. In the appeal filed before this Court, punishmen