Effecting a major revamp in the ranks of the higher judiciary, the Supreme Court collegium has elevated five judges as chief justices of high courts and transferred four chief justices.
The decision was taken at the meeting of the collegium held on Monday that was chaired by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde and attended by the two other senior-most judges, justice NV Ramana and justice Rohington F Nariman.
The list of transfers has raised some eyebrows, particularly that of justice JK Maheshwari, the chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh high court, who has been asked to swap positions with Sikkim high court chief justice AK Goswami.
Others who have been transferred include chief justice RS Chauhan of the Telangana high court to the Uttarakhand high court and chief justice Mohammad Rafiq from the Orissa high court to the Madhya Pradesh high court. Replacing them will be the judges who have been elevated as chief justices.
There has been friction between justice Maheshwari, who took over as Andhra Pradesh chief justice in October 2019, and Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. In March this year, the high court put a spoke in the state government’s decision to paint panchayat buildings with the colours of the ruling party . A month later, the high court set aside Reddy’s decision to introduce English as the medium of instruction in government schools.
{{/usCountry}}There has been friction between justice Maheshwari, who took over as Andhra Pradesh chief justice in October 2019, and Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. In March this year, the high court put a spoke in the state government’s decision to paint panchayat buildings with the colours of the ruling party . A month later, the high court set aside Reddy’s decision to introduce English as the medium of instruction in government schools.
{{/usCountry}}For months, the tussle between the government and judiciary in the state continued over several issues, finally reaching a flashpoint in September when the high court issued a gag order barring the media from reporting the contents of a first information report (FIR) in a land scandal in the city of Amaravati involving former advocate general Dammalapati Srinivas and daughters of a sitting Supreme Court judge, justice NV Ramana.
In October, Reddy wrote a letter to CJI Bobde, complaining that justice Ramana was trying to influence cases in the high court to destabilize his government. This letter was released to the media by Reddy’s principal advisor Ajeya Kallam at a press conference on October 10.
Notable among those elevated are justice S Muralidhar, whose parent high court is Delhi. The collegium has recommended that he be moved as chief justice of the Orissa high court. Justice Hima Kohli, the senior-most judge in the Delhi high court after chief justice DN Patel, has now been recommended to become chief justice of the Telangana high court.
In March, justice Muralidhar was transferred from his parent high court in Delhi to the Punjab and Haryana high court. The decision to transfer him created a controversy because it came soon after he pulled up Delhi police for not registering a first information report (FIR) against three leaders of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly inflammatory speeches they made in the run-up to the February riots in Delhi.
Justice Muralidhar, however, put the controversy to rest by clarifying in his farewell address at Delhi high court that the CJI had sought his consent in February to be transferred to the Punjab and Haryana high court.
Justice Muralidhar began his legal practice in Delhi in 1987; he is credited with the decision in the Naz Foundation case (2009) in which he and then Delhi high court chief justice AP Shah decriminalized homosexuality, then punishable under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. This verdict, reversed by the Supreme Court, was eventually upheld by a Constitution bench in 2018.
The other judges who were recommended for elevation as chief justices include justice Sanjib Banerjee, justice Pankaj Mithal and justice Sudhanshu Dhulia. Justice Banerjee, who is currently serving in the Calcutta high court, has been recommended to be moved as the new chief justice of the Madras high court. Justice Mithal’s parent high court is the Allahabad high court where he is currently serving as a senior judge on the Lucknow bench. He has been recommended to become chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir high court. Justice Dhulia, who is currently serving in the Uttarakhand high court, has been elevated as chief justice of the Gauhati high court.
The five other judges recommended for inter-high court transfers include acting chief justice of the Madhya Pradesh high court Justice Sanjay Yadav, who will move to the Allahabad high court. Similarly, justice Rajesh Bindal, who is the acting chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir high court, will move to the Calcutta high court.