The apex court committee comprising of CJI and other judges reportedly designated Muralidhar as a senior advocate on 16 October.
Former Chief Justice S Muralidhar at the Dakshin Dialogue 2023. (South First)
Former Orissa High Court Chief Justice Dr S Muralidhar, who recently retired, is set to return as a practising lawyer at the Supreme Court.
According to a report by Bar and Bench, the Supreme Court has designated Justice Muralidhar as a senior advocate.
The decision was made during a full court meeting of the Chief Justice of India and other Supreme Court judges on 16 October.
Justice Muralidhar, who also served as a judge at the Delhi High Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had faced a transfer from the Delhi High Court to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana following controversial observations on the Delhi Police’s handling of the 2020 Delhi riots.
In February 2020, Justice Muralidhar presided over three sessions addressing urgent pleas concerning police inaction during the Delhi riots.
Following an urgent late-night hearing at his residence, he issued a directive requiring the police to safeguard and facilitate the safe transportation of injured riot victims to hospitals, ensuring proper medical facilities.
In this directive, he specifically instructed the Delhi Police to utilise all available resources to guarantee the well-being of those affected by the riots and to promptly move injured victims for critical medical attention. He also mandated that the police provide a compliance report.
Additionally, in a separate directive, Justice Muralidhar ordered the government to offer temporary accommodation, medical care, and counselling to the displaced victims of the riots.
Soon after issuing these directives, the Union government transferred Justice Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
When he was asked about the transfer during South First’s Dakshin Dialogues-2023 conclave held in Bengaluru on 7 October, he said that he didn’t know why the government was upset over his decisions.
“See, I don’t know, what is it that upset (the government) because I think any other judge should have done the same thing… every other colleague of mine in the Delhi High Court would have reacted the same way,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody else should have and could have acted differently, so what is it that upset the government I’m as clueless as you are. And what upset them, if at all they were upset, I only have this to say: That it does not matter, because I think we’ve got the answer even from this room that many people did feel that that was the right thing to do at that point in time and, in fact, it was,” he added.
“I mean from what I’ve heard people come back later and tell me I think many lives were saved with that intervention by the court on that date,” Muralidhar said.
Despite being recommended for the role of chief justice at the Madras High Court, this proposal was withdrawn by the Collegium in April due to the Union government’s non-response.
He concluded his tenure as chief justice of Orissa High Court upon retirement.
During Dakshin Dialogues-2023, he had also highlighted the need for a cooling-off period for the judges, before being given public offices.
“Should there not be a cooling off period, like it is for the CAG; should not there be a provision in the Constitution which says there should be no holding of public offices by judges,” he said.
“I remember (BJP leader) Arun Jaitley was very vocal about this. Arun Jaitley was very vocal that no judges should be offered post-retirement offices… and you’ve seen what happened after they came to power. So, I think it should be across party lines some kind of a consensus that you don’t offer post-retirement sops,” he added.
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