The constant transfers of judges had left the Madras High Court in a state of flux; The senior advocate submitted that such short tenures were detrimental to the health of the institution and the justice delivery system.
Around 31 nominated senior advocates have sent a joint representation to the Supreme Court Collegium to reconsider their recommendation to the Center and the President for transfer of Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjeev Banerjee to the Meghalaya High Court.
The representation states that the Chief Justice had assumed office in the Madras High Court only on January 4, and had completed only 10 months here, though he has two more years of service with November 1, 2023, the date of his retirement.
“During his tenure, he has discharged his duties in both the administrative and judicial side to the best of his ability which has brought laurels to his position. He has been a good administrator and on the judicial side he has done some work even during the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of cases have been disposed of,” said the senior counsel.
His representation went on to read: “Orders were decided and delivered primarily in open court. While it is a fact that most advocates and litigants will readily agree, we are in a position to stand for his sudden transfer to another court.” Unable to fathom the reasons.”
The senior counsel also said that the continuous transfer of judges had left the Madras High Court in a state of constant flux. Such short term tenure at the top of the hierarchy of the court in a state is ill-fated for the health of the institution and the justice delivery system, he said.
Stating that it takes at least a year for a new Chief Justice to understand the administration, structure and challenges of an institution apart from understanding the culture, language and local practices, the senior counsel said that any Chief Justice of the Madras High Court The judge must have at least one. tenure of two years.
However, in the last three years, the Madras High Court had three Chief Justices in addition to the Acting Chief Justices, who were at the helm of cases for brief periods, the senior counsel said and requested the collegium to treat the representation as a missive. Don’t see Supporting any individual cause but a plea to strengthen the health of the institution.
The signatories to the report were senior advocates PS Raman, V. Prakash, Nalini Chidambaram, E. Omprakash, Ravi Kumar Paul, NR Elango, PH Arvind Pandian, Satish Parasaran, Veera Kathiravan, A Thiagarajan, MK Kabir and AR L. Beauty.
Senior advocates Arvind P. Datar, Hema Sampath, S. Subbaiah, M. Ravindran, Vijay Narayan, M. Ajmal Khan, S. Ramasamy, A. Sirajuddin, J. Raja Kalifulla, N. Krishnaveni included. , PR Raman, Pushya Sitaraman, TP Manoharan, NC Ramesh, Chitra Sampath, Isaac Mohanlal, R Venkataraman and R Murari.
The Madras Bar Association (MBA) also passed a resolution in an emergency general body meeting held on Sunday to reconsider the transfer.
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