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4. Ms. Trusha Patel, learned advocate appearing for the respondents no. 2 & 3 supported the order of dismissal. She made the following submissions:

(A) That on reading the relevant depositions, especially that of Mr. Jagat Patel - the complainant, it was evident that the petitioner as a Judicial Officer would interact with lawyers in question in matters of certain cases and would only pass orders when it was agreed that a certain amount of consideration is exchanged or paid to the petitioner. The charge of corrupt practice adopted by NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/10372/2023 CAV JUDGMENT DATED: 06/02/2024 undefined the petitioner therefore was clearly established. She would invite the attention of the court to the letter written by the Vigilance Cell of the High Court to the FSL, the relevant questions which were framed, the report of FSL containing answers which would indicate that there was no doubt about the genuineness and the authenticity of the two CDs to suggest that there was any alteration or modification. She would invite the court's attention to the report of the FSL which suggested that the contents of the 35 videos found on the hard disk and the videos found in the CDs are similar. That the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the hash value had changed was justified as per the opinion of the FSL the format of the CDs and video files fully matched and there was a change in the hash tag for reasons which were different.

8. Perusal of the Inquiry Officer's report in context of the relevant charge would indicate that there were CDs A, B & C which contained the main evidence which was relied against the delinquent who was a part of the joint inquiry conducted.

Though it was the case of the petitioner that the original source of the data was not produced, that there were cuts in NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/10372/2023 CAV JUDGMENT DATED: 06/02/2024 undefined the video clips and that the hash value of the video clips were changed and that it was the intention of the complainant to extort money, the Inquiry Officer addressed the important issue and the question whether the evidence in the form of CDs can be relied upon in holding the delinquent guilty of the charge.

8.2 Reading of the Inquiry Officer's report would further indicate that the Inquiry Officer based on the FSL reports which were at Exs. 298 & 299 found that if the video file was having an 'avi' format and it is converted into 'mpg' or any other format, the hash value would change. As per the report of the FSL, the clips in the CDs were in 'mpg' format whereas the format of the video clips in the external hard disk was 'avi' and since the format had changed, that resulted in the change in hash value. This therefore would answer the learned counsel for the petitioner's assertion of not relying on the evidence on record.

NEUTRAL CITATION C/SCA/10372/2023 CAV JUDGMENT DATED: 06/02/2024 undefined 8.3 It is not acceptable for us to be persuaded by such an argument that merely because the hash value of the recordings had changed, the evidentiary value of the CDs and the authenticity thereof could be doubted. The FSL report when perused in context of the questions asked and those answered would indicate that it was specifically opined that the contents of the 35 videos found in the hard disk and the videos in the CDs were similar and that the format of these fully matched. The letter written to the FSL asking questions, the report of the FSL and the report of the Photography Department found that there was no tampering of the videos.