Madras High Court Chief Justice V.K. Tahilramani decided not to have a sitting on Monday, with the decision over her resignation still pending. With no sitting for the bench headed by Tahilramani, cases listed before the first bench have been allotted to Court 2. She had resigned on Friday in protest against the Supreme Court collegium's order to transfer her from Madras HC to Meghalaya High Court.
Chief Justice Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani was scheduled to preside the first bench of the Madras HC on Monday where 75 cases have been listed for hearing. "The Honourable Chief Justice is not sitting in court on 09/09/2019," read the notice issued by the assistant registrar of HC.
The notice further said that "urgent Motions and Admissions in Public Interest Litigations relating to Rights of Women and Children filed on or after 1st January 2019 (all stages) Public Interest Litigations and writ appeals or writ petitions relating to unauthorised constructions, land encroachments (including in forest land) (all stages) writ petitions or civil revision petitions relating to the decisions of Debts Recovery Tribunals and Debt Recovery Apellate Tribunal moved if any are permitted to be moved before the Honourable Division bench consisting of Dr. Justice Vineet Kothari and Justice C Saravanan in court 2 on Monday."
Senior advocates and members of the Madras High Court Advocates Association said that this is the first time in the history of Madras High Court that a chief justice has been 'demoted and humiliated'. The Association has called for a strike on Tuesday to protest against the transfer. "The manner in which her transfer was decided and announced was very undemocratic," said G. Mohanakrishnan, president of the Madras High Court Advocates Association. The 1,800 members of the association, as a mark of protest, will not be appearing in any cases on Tuesday to protest against Tahilramani's transfer.
Meanwhile Tamil Nadu Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam called on the Chief Justice to persuade her. Sources say the minister requested her to reconsider her resignation.
On August 28, the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had recommended Tahilramani’s transfer to the Meghalaya High court. She requested the collegium to reconsider the transfer recommendation, but the collegium rejected her appeal and transferred her to Meghalaya HC which has a strength of three judges as against Madras HC's sanctioned strength of 75.
