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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Supreme Court collegium should explain why Justice Jayant Patel's transfer was in public interest -Sruthisagar Yamunan

Supreme Court collegium should explain why Justice Jayant Patel's transfer was in public interest -Sruthisagar Yamunan

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published Published on Sep 30, 2017   modified Modified on Sep 30, 2017
-Scroll.in

The manner in which the transfer was effected has raised questions about transparency in judicial appointments.

Justice Jayant Patel of the Karnataka High Court resigned on September 25, after he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court.

The transfer meant Patel lost the opportunity to become chief justice of the Karnataka High Court, where he was the second-most senior judge. In the Allahabad High Court, he would have been relegated to the position of the third-most senior judge. When appointing chief justices, the Supreme Court collegium usually (but not exclusively), considers a candidate’s seniority.

The resignation of Patel, who originally belonged to the Gujarat High Court, has caused a stir in the judiciary. The Karnataka State Bar Association has asked lawyers to abstain from work on October 4 to protest the transfer. In Gujarat, lawyers stopped work on Wednesday.

This was Patel’s second transfer. In 2016, he was moved from Gujarat to Karnataka, where he has since served as a puisne judge.

The manner in which the transfer was effected has raised serious questions about transparency in judicial appointments. Appearing in a debate on NDTV Wednesday evening, senior advocate Dushyant Dave alleged political interference in the decision. He noted that as acting chief justice of the Gujarat High Court, Patel had ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to inquire into the murder of Mumbai teenager Ishrat Jahan by Gujarat police officers in 2004. They claimed that Jahan and her three companions were conspiring to kill Narendra Modi, who was then Gujarat’s chief minister. The investigation ordered by Patel led to charges being filed against several senior police officers and embarrassed the state government led by Modi.

These allegations aside, Patel’s transfer begs an important question: Did the Supreme Court follow its own observations on transferring judges?

Judicial transfers

Judges are appointed by a a five-member collegium, consisting of the Chief Justice of India and the four most senior judges of the Supreme Court. The collegium system of judges appointing their fellow judges developed over time through judgements of the Supreme Court. The most important of them was the Supreme Court Advocates On Record Association vs Union of India, 1993. The Constitution created a system in which the President would appoint judges after consulting with the Chief Justice of India. But the 1993 verdict effectively gave all powers to appoint judges to the judiciary.

It also dealt with their transfers and laid down guidelines on how the process should be handled. Referring to Article 222(1) of the Constitution, which gives the President the power to transfer judges, the judgement stated:

“There is nothing in the language of Article 222(1) to rule out a second transfer of a once transferred judge without his consent but ordinarily the same must be avoided unless there exist pressing circumstances making it unavoidable. Ordinarily a transfer effected in public interest may not be punitive but all the same the Chief Justice of India must take great care to ensure that in the guise of public interest the judge is not being penalised.”

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Scroll.in, 29 September, 2017, https://amp.scroll.in/article/852239/supreme-court-collegium-should-explain-how-justice-jayant-patels-transfer-was-in-public-interest


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