A row erupted recently over the timing of the transfer of Delhi High Court judge Justice S Muralidhar, who had slammed the police for not registering a case against three BJP leaders for their alleged hate speeches, as the Congress said the ”midnight” notification was ”shameful” and the Centre accused the opposition party of politicising a ”routine” shift.
The Union Law Ministry on Wednesday night issued three separate notifications for the transfer of Justice Muralidhar and two other judges–Justice Ranjit Vasantrao More of the Bombay High Court and Justice Ravi Vijay Kumar Malimath of the Karnataka High Court. Justice Muralidhar was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The notifications said President Ram Nath Kovind approved the transfers after consulting the Chief Justice of India. They came on a day when a bench headed by Justice Muralidhar, the third senior-most judge in the Delhi High Court, expressed ”anguish” over Delhi Police’s failure to register FIRs against alleged hate speeches by BJP leaders Parvesh Verma, Kapil Mishra and Anurag Thakur in connection with the protests against the new Citizenship law.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Justice Muralidhar was transferred on the recommendation of the Supreme Court Collegium and accused the opposition party of politicising a routine transfer.
He added that a ”well-settled process” was followed in the transfer. At the BJP party briefing, senior leader and union minister Prakash Javadekar said the transfer was in line with the recommendation of the Collegium. The recommendation was made on 12 February.
The Congress alleged that the transfer of Justice Muralidhar was aimed at saving some BJP leaders in the Delhi violence case and exposed the government’s ‘intimidation and vendetta politics’ against the judiciary. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accused the government of making attempts to ”muzzle” justice and ”break people’s faith in an upright judiciary”.
Hitting back at the Congress over the allegations, Law Minister Prasad said, ”By politicising a routine transfer, Congress has yet again displayed its scant regard for the judiciary.”
”Transfer of Hon’ble Justice Muralidhar was done pursuant to the recommendation dated February 12 of the Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India,” Prasad said in a series of tweets. newstoday, news, today, todaynews, news today, newstoday.net, chennai daily newstoday, evening daily newstoday, chennai evening daily newstoday, chennai english evening daily newspaper newstoday, daily newspaper newstoday, english evening daily paper newstoday, english daily newspaper newstoday, evening daily newspaper newstoday, evening newspaper newstoday, english daily newspaper newstoday, english evening newspaper newstoday, evening daily newspaper newstoday
He said a judge’s consent is taken before transferring him or her. Judiciary and politics should stay away from each other and there should be no interference in justice delivery mechanism.