The Supreme Court collegium on Wednesday, 16 December, recommended to the Centre the transfer of four Chief Justices of high courts, including Andhra Pradesh High Court's Chief Justice JK Maheshwari, against whom Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy had written a letter to the Chief Justice of India.
Reddy had written a letter to CJI SA Bobde, claiming that Justice Maheshwari was being used to destabilise and topple the state’s democratically elected government.
In the SC collegium meeting that was held on 14 December, CJI Bobde recommended the transfer of Justice Maheshwari as Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court and Sikkim High Court Chief Justice AK Goswami to Andhra Pradesh HC.
The CJI also recommended the promotion of five high court judges as Chief Justices of different High Courts. This also included Justice Dr S Muralidhar whose notification of transferring him to Punjab and Haryana High Court had created a huge controversy.
Justice Dr S Muralidhar has been recommended to be elevated as Chief Justice of Orissa High Court.
On 26 February this year, the Ministry of Law and Justice notified the transfer of Justice S Muralidhar from the Delhi High Court to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Justice Muralidhar had pulled up the Delhi Police for not registering FIRs against BJP leaders Kapil Mishra, Parvesh Verma and Anurag Thakur (and any others) who had made provocative speeches in Delhi.
Supreme Court collegium had recommended his transfer on 12 February. When the decision became public on 19 February, it was widely condemned, including by the Delhi High Court Bar Association.
The collegium has also approved the proposal to transfer Telangana HC Chief Justice R S Chauhan as the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court while Orissa High Court Chief Justice Mohammed Rafiq has been transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Collegium also recommended the transfer of Justice Sanjay Yadav from Madhya Pradesh HC to Allahabad HC, while Justice Vineet Kothari has been sent to Gujarat HC from Madras HC.
Justice Rajesh Bindal has been transferred from Jammu and Kashmir HC to Calcutta HC. Justice Joymalya Bagchi has been sent to Andhra Pradesh HC from Calcutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma has been sent from Madhya Pradesh HC to Karnataka HC.
(With inputs from PTI)
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