SC warns judges: Don’t take case records home
The Supreme Court has warned judges from taking out case documents from courts unless they are authorized to do it, particularly if they fail to return them upon their retirement.
Section 14 of Rule 136 of the Rules of Court provides that “no record shall be taken from the clerk’s office without an order of the court except as otherwise provided by these rules.”
But there are some judges who bring home records of some cases for them to make decisions and other legal orders as one way to hasten their resolution of cases.
A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court slapped a retired judge with P20,000 fine after it was found out that he took several court documents to his house and failed to return them even after six years from his retirement.
Since Judge Romulo Carteciano has already retired from the Municipal Trial Court of Los Baños, Laguna, the High Court’s third division, presided by Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, ordered that the fine be collected from Carteciano’s retirement benefits.
Despite his retirement, Carteciano had the habit of returning records to the court on a piecemeal basis with an attached draft decision despite that the case had been submitted for decision several years ago, expecting that the judge who succeeded him would just sign his draft.
The Supreme Court also found Carteciano guilty for delaying the resolution of cases, including those that need urgent action.
It was reported that Carteciano, who retired from the judiciary service in 2000, only returned the records of two cases which showed that the last action taken was on
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