President Pratibha Patil has transferred 11 judges of six High Courts in the “public interest,” on the recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium and accepted by the Centre.
According to Law Ministry notifications, three judges from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, two each from the Delhi, Allahabad and Andhra Pradesh High Courts and one each from the Madras and Orissa High Courts have been transferred, and asked to assume office within 15 days.
When the collegium recommended the shifting of 12 judges in the first instance, some of them said they would accept the transfer but wanted to be posted in a nearby High Court of their choice. As in most of the cases the transfers were sought to be effected on the ground that the judges' family members were practising in the same High Court, they wanted the “public interest” concept properly defined as otherwise the transfers would send wrong signals.
But, according to informed sources, the request was considered and rejected and the original transfer proposal was approved by the collegium. Justice R. S. Mohite of the Bombay High Court, who was sought to be shifted to the Patna High Court, resigned last month as his request was not considered.
Those who have been shifted are the seniormost judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice T. Meenakumari to the Patna High Court; Justice D.S.R. Varma of the Andhra Pradesh High Court to the Allahabad High Court; Justices V. M. Sahai and Poonam Srivastava of the Allahabad High Court to the Gujarat and Jharkhand High Courts respectively; Justices Ashutosh Mahunta, Vinod Kumar Sharma and H. S. Bhalla of the Punjab and Haryana High Court to the Allahabad, Madras and Orissa High Courts respectively; Justices S. N. Agarwal and Aruna Suresh of the Delhi High Court to the Madhya Pradesh and Orissa High Courts respectively; Justice M. Jeyapaul of the Madras High Court and Justice B. P. Ray of the Orissa High Court to the Punjab and Haryana and Karnataka High Courts respectively.
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