A tribunal judge has been issued with a formal warning for misconduct after she was found to have made ‘disparaging generalisations’ about the Roma community.
A fellow tribunal member complained that tribunal judge Fozia Rizvi had made the remarks during discussions before a hearing. The judge denied making the comments or holding prejudicial views about the Roma community. Rizvi ‘highlighted her long legal career with no previous complaints of racism or prejudice, her work supporting minority groups’.
In her representations, she suggested the complaint had been made in bad faith but she did not wish to provide an explanation when invited to elaborate on her allegation about the complainant’s motives.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: ‘The guide to judicial conduct states that judicial office holders should seek to be courteous, patient, tolerant and punctual and should respect the dignity of all.
‘They should ensure that no one is exposed to any display of bias or prejudice on grounds which include but are not to be limited to “race, colour, sex, religion, national origin, caste, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, social and economic status and other like causes”.’
An investigation found Rizvi had made the comments. The allegation brought by Rizvi that the complaint had been made in bad faith was rejected and treated as an aggravating factor of Rizvi’s conduct, which amounted to misconduct.
Taking into account Rizvi’s mitigation including her ‘demonstrated commitment to equality and minority groups’, the lady chief justice and lord chancellor ‘did not consider the conduct to be indicative of fundamentally racist views’.
The JCIO said: ‘However, they considered the nature of the comments to be sufficiently improper to warrant a formal warning rather than formal advice.’
Sanctions for misconduct by judicial office-holders are, in order of severity, formal advice, formal warning, reprimand and removal from office.
