The Union government notified the transfer of three judges from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Courts on Thursday, May 1. The transfers were approved by the Union law ministry 10 days ago.
Justice K Surender from the Telangana High Court has been transferred to the Madras High Court. Justices P Sree Sudha from the Telangana High Court and K Manmadha Rao from the Andhra Pradesh High Court have been transferred to Karnataka High Court.
The Union Government approved the transfer of the judges, based on recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium ten days ago.
Justice K Surender was appointed as an additional judge and later as a permanent judge of the Telangana High Court in March 2022 where he served for three years. Justice P Sree Sudha served as a judge of the Telangana High Court for four years after her appointment in October 2021 while Justice K Manmadha Rao served as a judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court for four years after his appointment in August 2021.
The Telangana High Court Advocates Association on April 22 had protested against the Supreme Court collegium’s decision to transfer Justices K Surender and Sree Sudha. The association said that the Telangana High Court was facing a problem as judges were being transferred without proper replacements.
They decided to send a delegation to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna to request the withdrawal of the transfers of both these judges.