Andhra Pradesh High Court advocates boycott work to protest transfer of two judges

The Collegium recommended the transfer of Justice Devanand to the Madras High Court and Justice Ramesh to the Allahabad High Court.

‘No logic in transfers’

“There should be some logic behind the transfers. We suspect political interference in the abrupt transfers of the two judges from the Andhra Pradesh High Court. How can justice delivery prevail if such interference happens?” asked Dr Bala, a practising advocate.

“We totally condemn the transfers and they should be withdrawn,” he told South First.

Owing to the boycott of the work by the advocates, courts at high court didn’t function on Friday, hampering routine work and causing inconvenience to thousands.

There are at least 5,000 practising advocates at the Andhra Pradesh High Court and all of them had boycotted work on Friday in all 30 courts. They also staged protest on the high court premises.

Dr Bala said that the advocates are determined to continue with the boycott until Collegium withdraws the transfer recommendation.

Another advocate reminded that the Collegium had withheld the transfer of a Gujarat high court judge after such protests.

Related: Curious case of stalled transfers of 4 TS, Andhra high court judges

The Collegium decision

The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting on Thursday, recommended the transfer of seven judges: Three from Telangana High Court, and two each from the Andhra Pradesh and Madras High Courts.

Justices VM Velumani and T Raja of the Madras High Court have been transferred to the Calcutta and Rajasthan High Courts, respectively.

Justices A Abhishek Reddy, Lalitha Kanneganti, D Nagarjun of the Telangana High Court have been transferred to the Patna, Karnataka and Madras High Courts, respectively.

It may be recalled that advocates of the Telangana High Court were protesting earlier this week after a couple legal websites had reported the transfer of Justice Abhishek Reddy to Patna.

They had taken issue over the “abrupt” transfer of Justice Reddy even as two other transfers from the Telangana High Court and two from the Andhra High Court had not been acted upon.

The Telangana advocates called off the strike on Tuesday after representatives of the Telangana High Court Advocates’ Association were assured by Chief Justice YV Chandrachud that their grievances over the transfer would be examined.