Lawyers vs Collegium: What's behind protests against judges’ transfer
The Gujarat and Madras High Courts are no strangers to controversies over the transfer of judges
Amid protests in Gujarat, Telangana and Tamil Nadu against the proposed transfer of High Court judges, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and two Supreme Court judges met Gujarat and Telangana High Court lawyers on Monday.
The protests began in Gujarat after Justice Nikhil Kariel was transferred from Gujarat High Court to Patna by the Collegium. Terming it as “death of the independence of the judiciary”, the Gujarat HC Advocates’ Association passed a resolution against the transfer, describing Justice Kariel as the “finest, upright, honest and unbiased” judge.
The protest then spread to Telangana where HC lawyers boycotted work against the Collegium’s proposed transfer of Justice A Abhishek Reddy.
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Madras High Court lawyers too expressed their displeasure over the reported recommendation to transfer Acting Chief Justice T Raja to Rajasthan.
CJI meets HC lawyers
CJI Chandrachud, accompanied by Collegium members Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MR Shah, on Monday agreed to examine the grievances of the protesting lawyers while “strongly conveying” that they have to get back to work, The Hindu reported.
A statement released by the Gujarat delegation said a detailed representation was forwarded to the CJI on November 20. Supporting papers and documents were submitted to the office of CJI after the meeting for his consideration.
A similar account of the meeting was given by the Telangana delegation. Asked what they found problematic about the proposed transfer of Justice Reddy, secretary of the Telangana HC Advocates Association Narendar told The Hindu that “the Collegium has taken a pick-and-choose method.” He said Justice Reddy was one of the senior-most judges on the Telangana HC Bench.
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Though a statement issued by the Telangana lawyers said they would resume work from Tuesday, the Gujarat lawyers said they would decide after a meeting. The Supreme Court did not issue any statement on the meetings.
Madras HC representation
The Madras HC Advocates Association had on Friday objected to the transfer of Justice T Raja to Rajasthan HC for “administrative reasons”. In a representation to CJI Chandrachud, the association urged the Collegium and Government of India to drop the proposal and allow the acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court to continue in his present capacity till he attains superannuation.
“During his 13-odd years as judge of this chartered high court, Justice Raja has delivered several thousand judgments and has earned a reputation as a people’s judge who would render justice irrespective of who appears and argues before him. While so, the proposed sudden transfer, that too while he has just about six months of his illustrious career left, is definitely bad news for the judiciary in this part of the country,” the representation stated.
Earlier cases
The Gujarat and Madras High Courts are no strangers to controversies over the transfer of judges. In 2018, the government did not agree to the Collegium’s recommendation to appoint Justice Akil Kureshi as the Madhya Pradesh Chief Justice from the Bombay High Court, to which he was transferred from the Gujarat High Court, where he was the most senior judge. The collegium settled for his appointment as Chief Justice of the Tripura High Court, a smaller court having four judges.
The Madras HC too had seen protests when in 2021 the Supreme Court collegium proposed transferring Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee to the Meghalaya High Court. Two major lawyers’ bodies — the Madras High Court Advocates Association, the largest one with a membership of over 20,000 advocates and the Madras Bar Association, an elite group of advocates — passed resolutions protesting against the proposal to shift the Chief Justice.
Also read: Collegium system for appointment of judges can be improved: Ex CJI Thakur
Rijiju cautions
Meanwhile, the Centre has not taken kindly to the lawyers’ protest. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, while addressing the Bar Council of India and lawyers from across the country on Saturday, cautioned protesting lawyers that when “things become too loud in terms of putting forward demands, it has a risk of taking a different turn”.
“I heard some lawyers are meeting the CJI for a transfer…but if this becomes a recurring instance, for every decision of the Collegium which is being supported by the government, then where will it lead to?” Rijiju said.
