CJI Chandrachud to meet Gujarat lawyers protesting judge's transfer to Patna HC

Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has agreed to meet the Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association on November 21 in view of the ongoing protest by lawyers opposing the Supreme Court collegium's recommendation to transfer Justice Nikhil S Kariel to Patna high court. 

Hardik D Brahmbhatt, secretary, Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association (GHCAA). told PTI on Friday that a delegation of the bar association has been allowed to meet the CJI on Monday at 1.30 pm.

"Yes, we will come with the delegation," he said, adding that lawyers in the Telangana high court are also likely to meet the Chief Justice of India to air their grievances.

The Supreme Court collegium had recently recommended transfer of three high court judges for administrative reasons, sources said.

The five-member collegium is learnt to have transferred Madras high court acting chief justice T Raja to the Rajasthan high court, while Justice Nikhil S Kariel and Justice A Abhishek Reddy have been transferred to the Patna high court.

Justice Raja was appointed as additional judge of Madras high court on March 31, 2009, and assumed charge as acting chief justice from September 22, 2022.

Justice Kariel is currently a judge at the Gujarat high court, while Justice Reddy is posted at the Telangana high court.

Media reports on collegium resolutions have led to eruption of lawyers' protest in the Gujarat high court and the Telangana high court.

Members of the Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association had on Thursday passed a resolution strongly opposing the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium to transfer Justice Kariel to the Patna HC and also abstained from work for the second half of the day as a mark of protest.

Members of the association said they gathered in the court of the high court's chief justice around noon "to mourn the death of independence of the judiciary" and observed silence for two minutes.

They also warned of protesting indefinitely till the issue was resolved.

"Justice Kariel is one of the finest, honest, upright, and unbiased judges whose integrity and honesty is being vouched by the entire Bar in one voice," the association had said in the resolution.