Chandigarh, July 17 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled that it is the sole competent authority to decide whether disciplinary proceedings should be initiated against a superior judicial service officer.

"The administrative setup of the high court is vested with sufficient discretionary powers to assess whether the material-such as the complaint, affidavit of the complainant and the judicial officer's response-is adequate to initiate disciplinary action," a bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sumeet Goel observed.

The court made the observation while hearing a petition filed by a Ludhiana-based lawyer, who had sought to quash a February 2023 decision by a HC judge, acting as the administrative judge of Yamunanagar d...