NEW DELHI:  In an unprecedented development, a senior Madhya Pradesh judge was dismissed for giving a man convicted of lighting his wife on fire with kerosene and setting her ablaze for dowry, a very lenient five-year prison sentence.

On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed Leena Dixit's writ petition challenging the decision of the Madhya Pradesh High Court's full-court approving the administrative committee's recommendation that she be removed from her position as a judge due to her egregious error, which was made worse by her subsequent behavior.

Using the injured woman's last declaration before she passed away, the medical evidence, and the forensic conclusion concerning the presence of kerosene, Dixit, a direct recruit to the state's higher judicial service, had declared the man guilty of murder. She made the strange decision to impose a five-year sentence even though the penalty for murder under section 302 of the IPC was either the death penalty or life in prison.

When the incongruity between the seriousness of offence and the leniency of sentence became stark, she unauthorisedly reviewed her judgment and modified the conviction to 304A, which carried a maximum sentence of 2 years. On the contrary, 304B provided for a punishment of minimum 7 years for dowry death, which could be extended to life imprisonment.

Dixit repeatedly claimed that "for the first and only mistake, she did not deserve to get terminated" in front of a bench of Justices U U Lalit, S R Bhat, and S Dhulia.

However, the bench noted "You are an additional sessions judge, a mid-level judicial official with the authority to sentence someone to death with the HC's approval. How could you sentence someone to 5 years after finding them guilty of murder? After then, you change the conviction to 304A, disregarding the issue of whether you have the authority to review or change your own decision. Sections 302 and 498A (dowry harassment) are terms you are familiar with." the bench dismissed her petition.

SC's big relief to Zubair, seeks reply from UP govt in 4 weeks

SC refuses to entertain plea to transfer Moosewala murder case to CBI

SC to hear plea alleging attacks on Christian priests