SC rues interference in judges’ transfers, posting

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that interference in the appointment, transfer and postings of judges goes to the root of administration of justice and interference in such matters does not augur well for the institution.

The matters of “appointment, transfer and posting of judges go to the root of the system of administration of justice” and, therefore, “the power of judicial review has to be construed” as such, said a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S.A. Bobde and Justice S. Abdul Nazeer in an apparent reference to a petition by the Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association relating to the top court collegium’s recommendation for the appointment of a Bombay high court judge as the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh HC.

“We also would like to put on record that interference in such matters affects the system of administration of justice and, therefore, does not augur well for the institution”, said the CJI Gogoi in the order.

Initially, Justice Kureshi was recommended for ap-pointment as Chief Jus-tice of Madhya Pradesh high court on May 10, 2019, but after top court collegium received two communications from the Centre, the original recommendation was modified and Justice Kureshi was recommended for appointment as Chief Justice of Tripura high court — a much smaller high court compared to MP high court.

The court accepted the request by senior counsel Arvind Datar that the plea by Gujarat High Court Ad-vocates’ Association be kept pending till the government notifies collegium’s September 20, 2019 recommendation for the appointment of Justice Kureshi as Chief Justice of the Tripura high court.

Mr Datar had appeared for Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association.

The court directed its registry to list the matter for further consideration once the government acts on the proposal of the Collegium of September 20, 2019.

Justice Kureshi was second senior most judge in Gujarat high court when Justice R. Subhash Reddy was Chief Justice of that court. After Justice Reddy was elevated to as judge of Supreme Court, Justice Kureshi was transferred to the Bombay high court where he was at number 5 in the list of seniority.

This sparked protest by the high court advocates and Justice Kureshi was retained in Gujatrat high court for some time before being shifted to the Bombay high court.