Centre Stalls Transfer of Judge Who Criticised Delhi Police in 2020 Riots Case

Justice Muralidhar was transferred to the Punjab & Haryana High Court soon after he criticised Delhi Police in 2020.

Justice S Murlidhar.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

The Central government, on Tuesday, 11 October, while approving three recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium for the appointment of Chief Justices at the Karnataka, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir High Courts, held back on the transfer of Justice S Muralidhar, presently serving as the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, to the Madras High Court.

The Collegium made a resolution regarding the transfer of Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Dr. S Muralidhar from J&K&L High Court and Orissa High Court as Chief Justices of Rajasthan and Madras High Courts.

Following this, the Department of Justice only notified the transfer of Justice Mithal and other appointments except for the proposal regarding Justice Muralidhar, whose name was a part of the same resolution.

The segregation of collegium resolutions, has come under fire in the past too for giving room to the executive to selectively pick and choose. An instance of the criticism of the splitting of the collegium was apparent especially in the proposals related to Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium (2014), Justice KM Joseph (2018) and Justice Akil Kureshi (2019).

Justice Murlidhar's Controversial Transfer from the Delhi High Court

Muralidhar was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court in February 2020 with immediate effect, soon after he criticised and directed the Delhi police to take a decision on registration of FIR for inflammatory speeches against politicians such as Anurag Thakur, Pravesh Verma, Abhay Verma and Kapil Mishra during the 2020 Delhi pogrom.

He was the third senior most Judge of the Delhi High Court when this happened and his transfer was met with strong opposition from the Delhi Bar.

He started as the Delhi High Court judge in 2006 and was part of the bench that legalised homosexuality in the 2009 Naz Foundation case. Additionally, he also headed the division bench that convicted members of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) in the Hashimpura massacre case and Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

In January 2021, Justice Muralidhar was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.

Under his leadership, the Orissa High Court started the live streaming of the Court of Chief Justice on a trial basis.