Collegium wants transfer of HC judges streamlined, random ways discarded | India News
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court collegium is trying to break away from the unwritten norms for transfer of judges from one high court to another, done so far on the basis of a judge’s integrity, conduct, requirement of expertise in another HC and, very often, because of his/her closeness to an ex-CJI or ex-collegium member.The five-member SC collegium led by CJI Surya Kant and comprising Justices Vikram Nath, B V Nagarathna, M M Sundresh and P S Narasimha had an informal discussion last week on evolving a well-defined policy framework to streamline the process for transfer of judges from their parent HC to another. They felt that random or pick-and-choose methods of transfer for reasons that are not objective must be discarded. A proposal for transfer of a judge from his/her parent HC to another could be moved for various reasons.Judge ‘close to’ CJI runs transfer risk once mentor leaves officeFor instance, an HC judge, high in seniority, could be transferred to prepare him/her for taking over as CJ of that HC. There have also been occasions when a senior judge was sent to another HC to create a buffer between the CJ and senior judges there because they were not getting along.There have been cases where transfer proposals were initiated when in-house inquiries corroborated complaints regarding the integrity of a judge or that his/her behaviour was unbecoming of the constitutional post in the courtroom or in public. On the constructive side, a judge having expertise in certain fields of litigation could be transferred to another HC where his/her services could be more productive.There is another reason as well, one that has never made it to the records but has always been whispered aloud, a secret that is hardly so — a judge perceived to be close to a CJI or a member of the SC collegium who is transferred as soon as the mentor has demitted office. Very often, it is meant to settle scores against the CJI who refused to accommodate requests for appointment or transfer of judges from colleagues. All these grounds for transfers till 2018 were couched in the specious “in the interest of better administration of justice” officialese.The phraseology was discarded by 2020 and collegium resolutions plainly stated the transfer of a particular judge.In 2022, the collegium had recommended transfers of 18 HC judges, 34 in 2023, 11 in 2024, 44 in 2025 and 12 in 2026. The deliberations among members of the SC collegium would factor in the complexities and may also include a provision for reconsideration of a recommendation for transfer which has not been honoured by the executive.There have been some examples where recommendations for transfers remained pending for years with govt. In some cases, the collegium had acted expeditiously in accepting representations of HC judges seeking transfers while in others, it had maintained a posture of benign indifference.
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Even though SC has frowned upon transfers being used as a punitive measure, the majority of transfers in the past five years were seen as dislodging judges from their parent HCs because of one or the other complaint.A view has gained ground that in such situations, the judge concerned should be asked by the CJ concerned to mend his/her ways within a specified period before the collegium resorts to shifting him/her out.
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