The transfers, cleared by collegium under former CJI Lalit, were for some reason not notified. The new CJI will now have to take a call.
Upholding the decision taken by the special court for CBI cases to reject the bail, the Telangana High Court said the bail could not be granted. (Creative Commons)
Even as advocates of the Telangana High Court were protesting the reported transfer of Justice A Abhishek Reddy to Patna, the corridors of the top courts of the two Telugu states are abuzz with animated discussions on the status of four other transfer proposals that have not yet been acted on.
Abhishek Reddy’s shift last week, as reported by two legal websites, came out of the blue at a time when lawyers and judges were expecting a notification regarding the transfer of four other judges — two each from the Telangana and Andhra High Courts.
Interestingly, the four transfers — with the two from Telangana, including a woman judge, proposed to be shifted to Kolkata, and their counterparts from Andhra to Lucknow — were cleared by the five-member collegium when Justice UU Lalit was the chief justice for a brief tenure.
Curiously, though, the transfers were not notified during Justice Lalit’s tenure and, therefore, they have to be considered afresh by the new collegium headed by Justice YV Chandrachud.
As is the protocol, the proposed transferees were informed by their respective chief justices and were asked to submit representation against the transfer, if any, within two weeks. Usually, the transferred judges accept the decision and, in any case, the Supreme Court sticks to its proposals, except in rare cases.
Multiple people aware of the developments with whom South First spoke, said that it was at this stage that intense efforts began to stall the transfers.
One of the transferred judges, who has the blessings of a top judge no longer part of the Supreme Court, called on almost all those who matter in the apex court with a request to either withdraw the proposal or consider a move to a southern state instead of the North or East.
The response from the Supreme Court judges could not, however, be independently verified by South First though varying versions are floating around.
The saga of transfers from Telangana and Andhra goes beyond this reshuffle. At one stage, the Supreme Court was said to have considered shifting at least 10 judges from both the courts, including Justice Abhishek Reddy.
However, an apex court judge reportedly objected to such en masse transfer, upon which the list was pruned to four. This did not include Justice Abhishek Reddy.
Last week, though, the legal websites reported the transfer of Justice Abhishek Reddy even as the other four were pending, which has riled the advocates of Telangana.
There is no clarity yet on when or whether the collegium will take a call in regard to the other four transfers.
Meanwhile, advocates of the Telangana High Court, who were protesting the transfer of Justice Abhishek Reddy, called off their strike on Monday, 21 November, according to Bar and Bench.
The legal website reported that the decision came after representatives of the Telangana High Court Advocates’ Association were assured by Chief Justice Chandrachud that their grievances over the transfer would be would be examined.
(The story has been updated with news of the Telangana advocates calling off their strike.)
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