Protesting the transfer of senior-most puisne judge of the Karnataka High Court Justice Jayant Patel to Allahabad High Court, all advocates in Karnataka boycotted court work on Wednesday.
This comes after the Karnataka State Bar Council and Advocates Association Bangalore passed a resolution to the same effect over the controversial transfer.
Speaking to TNM, HC Shivaramu, Convenor, Advocates Association Bangalore said, “Our resolution was passed on two issues. Firstly, we protest the demotion of Justice Jayant Patel. The second issue is there are only 24 working judges in Karnataka High Court. We have written to the Chief Justice of India and the Collegium to fill up the vacancies as early as possible.”
Justice Patel, who is the senior-most puisne judge, had tendered his resignation on September 25 after he was transferred to Allahabad High Court.
He was eligible to be the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, as Chief Justice SK Mukherjee is set to retire on October 9.
If he had accepted the transfer, Justice Patel would have retired being the third senior judge in Allahabad HC.
Reports on Tuesday suggested that the decision to transfer Justice Patel was a unanimous one by the Supreme Court Collegium. The Collegium, headed by CJI Dipak Misra, is formed of three other senior most Supreme Court Justices — J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.
“Decision taken to transfer Justice Jayant Patel was a conscious and unanimous decision taken after adequate deliberation keeping in view the input on record," a statement from sources in SC read.
Bar and Bench citing sources said that the decision by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra’s was taken after considering inputs on-record pertaining to Justice Patel.
The report also said that the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association is also likely to file a petition in the Supreme Court calling for a more transparent process of appointment of judges.
This is not the first time that Justice Patel has been passed up for a promotion. The senior judge was the Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court prior to his transfer to Karnataka.
Some including senior advocate Dushyant Dave has suggested that Justice Patel is paying the price of his ruling in the Ishrat Jahan case in Gujarat, back in 2011.
Justice Patel was part of the division bench that handed over the investigation into the 2004 killings of Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh and two others, to a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).Protesting the transfer of senior-most puisne judge of the Karnataka High Court Justice Jayant Patel to Allahabad High Court, all advocates in Karnataka boycotted court work on Wednesday.
This comes after the Karnataka State Bar Council and Advocates Association Bangalore passed a resolution to the same effect over the controversial transfer.
Speaking to TNM, HC Shivaramu, Convenor, Advocates Association Bangalore said, “Our resolution was passed on two issues. Firstly, we protest the demotion of Justice Jayant Patel. The second issue is there are only 24 working judges in Karnataka High Court. We have written to the Chief Justice of India and the Collegium to fill up the vacancies as early as possible.”
Justice Patel, who is the senior-most puisne judge, had tendered his resignation on September 25 after he was transferred to Allahabad High Court.
He was eligible to be the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, as Chief Justice SK Mukherjee is set to retire on October 9.
If he had accepted the transfer, Justice Patel would have retired being the third senior judge in Allahabad HC.
Reports on Tuesday suggested that the decision to transfer Justice Patel was a unanimous one by the Supreme Court Collegium. The Collegium, headed by CJI Dipak Misra, is formed of three other senior most Supreme Court Justices — J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph.
“Decision taken to transfer Justice Jayant Patel was a conscious and unanimous decision taken after adequate deliberation keeping in view the input on record," a statement from sources in SC read.
Bar and Bench citing sources said that the decision by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra’s was taken after considering inputs on-record pertaining to Justice Patel.
The report also said that the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association is also likely to file a petition in the Supreme Court calling for a more transparent process of appointment of judges.
This is not the first time that Justice Patel has been passed up for a promotion. The senior judge was the Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court prior to his transfer to Karnataka.
Some including senior advocate Dushyant Dave has suggested that Justice Patel is paying the price of his ruling in the Ishrat Jahan case in Gujarat, back in 2011.
Justice Patel was part of the division bench that handed over the investigation into the 2004 killings of Ishrat Jahan, Javed Sheikh and two others, to a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT).