The Supreme Court Collegium has resolved and recommended that the Chief Justices of the Madras and Meghalaya High Courts swap places, in the interest of better administration of justice. It has been recommended that Justice Vijaya Kamalesh Tahilramani of the Madras High Court be transferred to the Meghalaya High Court and that the Chief Justice of the Meghalaya High Court, Justice A.K. Mittal, will replace her. The recommendation has come as a surprise to the legal fraternity at the Madras High Court.
"The Collegium's cherrypicking of names for transfers within the Supreme Court itself is surprising. Now, the Madras HC Chief Justice is transferred from a court which has a sanctioned strength of 75 to a court which has a strength of three judges. Usually the Chief Justices from Madras HC are either elevated to the Supreme Court or retire from service based on age," says a senior advocate at the Madras High Court, who doesn't want to be named.
The August 28 resolution of the Collegium had recommended the transfer of Chief Justice Tahilramani to the Meghalaya High Court as its Chief Justice "in the interest of better administration of justice." The third resolution was passed on September 3, despite Tahilramani requesting the Collegium to reconsider the proposal to transfer her to Meghalaya. Her request, as per the resolution was turned down by the Collegium.
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In its reply to Tahilramani's request, the Collegium said: “Justice V.K. Tahilramani has requested to reconsider her proposal for transfer to Meghalaya High Court. The Collegium has carefully gone through the aforesaid representation and taken into consideration all relevant factors. On reconsideration, the Collegium is of the considered view that it is not possible to accede to her request. The Collegium, accordingly, reiterates its recommendation dated 28th August, 2019 for transfer of Justice V.K. Tahilramani to Meghalaya High Court."
The Collegium had issued yet another resolution giving the same reason—in the interest of better administration of justice—for transferring Meghalaya Chief Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal to the Madras High Court. Both resolutions stated that the transfer of the Chief Justices is being made in view of the fact that the Office of the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned would be falling vacant shortly consequent upon transfer of the other Chief Justice in terms of a separate resolution passed the same day.
It may be recalled that the Telengana Bar Association has already gone on a week-long protest against the transfer of Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar as Punjab and Haryana High Court judge. The Gauhati Bar Association also registered its protest over the Collegium's proposal to transfer Justice Ujjal Bhuyan. Last week, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul wrote to the Chief Justice of India, wondering why the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Pradeep Nandrajog and Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Gita Mittal were ignored for elevation to the Supreme Court despite their seniority.
