The Telangana High Court on Wednesday suspended a special sessions judge, days after he directed the police to file a case against a state minister, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and other senior polling officials, PTI reported.

The judge, K Jaya Kumar, was suspended after a senior Election Commission official filed a complaint before the High Court.

The case pertains to a complaint by a man named Ch Raghavendra Raju against Telangana minister and Mahabubnagar MLA V Srinivas Goud. The complainant alleged that Goud, in his election affidavit in 2018, had furnished incorrect facts and that election officials allowed him to tamper with his affidavit, according to The Times of India.

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On July 31, the judge directed the police to register a case against Goud and election officials who allegedly allowed him to tamper with his affidavit after it was filed. However, on the same day, the High Court had said in an order that it was permissible for a candidate to rectify an election affidavit during the nomination period.

On August 12, Kumar warned the police of a contempt case if they failed to file the case before 4 pm on that day. However, the judge passed the directive in an oral order, and the written order only said that he had asked for a report from the police on the steps they had taken with respect to his earlier order, The Times of India reported.

The Mahabubnagar Police then filed a case against Goud, Kumar and other senior election officials.

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On the basis of the complaint by the Election Commission, the High Court looked into the matter and arrived at a preliminary conclusion that Kumar had “acted in undue haste” and crossed his brief. The High Court said that the judge did not carry out a preliminary inquiry and did not record the complainant’s statement before directing the police to file a case.

This, the High Court said, was a serious lapse in procedure by the judicial officer.