LAHORE, July 5: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has punished 14 judicial officers and 267 staffers during last one year on charges of corruption, LHC registrar Sohail Nasir said on Tuesday.

According to a circular, the registrar said corruption was rampant in every nook and corner of the country, and being a part of society, the judiciary was no exception but the LHC under the guidance of Chief Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry was fighting this menace keenly.

He said perks and privileges of members of the judiciary in Punjab were better than other civil departments, therefore, zero tolerance would be observed against corruption.

According to statistics, one district & sessions judge (D&SJ) was compulsorily retired and two additional district & sessions judges (AD&SJ) and two civil judges had been shown the door.

Minor penalties such as stoppage of annual increment, warnings/censures had been imposed upon a D&SJ, an AD&SJ and seven civil judges.

During the period under review, 89 officials of the district courts throughout the province were proposed to be fired, however, after scrutiny 57 of them were removed from service and minor penalties ranging from stoppage of annual increments to censures were slapped on 210 officials of the district judiciary.

The circular said inquiries were pending against five D&SJs, 11 AD&SJs, four senior civil judges and 13 civil judges.