The posting of outgoing Chief Justice Barin Ghosh of J&K, who was scheduled to proceed to Sikkim High Court to interchange with Chief Justice Dr Aftab Saikia, has been altered at the eleventh hour by the Supreme Court Collegium. He has been 're-routed' and will now proceed to Uttarakhand HC.
Meanwhile, a farewell dinner was hosted in honour of outgoing CJ by the State Government in Jammu Friday evening, in which - apart from the HC judges - many top bureaucrats from the state were present.
Highly placed sources in Law department confirmed that “a notification about the change in posting of Justice Ghosh has been received”, adding “instead of proceeding to Sikkim HC, he would now be joining Uttarakhand HC.
The virtual 'musical chair' in the higher judiciary resulted as the “controversial and tainted” Chief Justice of Karnataka HC, P D Dinakaran, facing an inquiry for corruption charges, squarely refused to proceed on leave as was advised to him by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishan.
To resolve the crisis, the SC Collegium decided to transfer Justice Dinakaran to Sikkim HC, where originally Justice Ghosh was scheduled to join. As per new orders, Justice Ghosh is now supposed to join Uttarakhand HC.
Jostice Ghosh is to be replaced by CJ of Sikkim HC Dr Aftab Hussain Saikia. In fact, orders in this regard were issued by President of India Pratibha Patil through a presidential notification of April 1. As per the notification, Justice Aftab is scheduled to join as J-K CJ by or before April 13.
On the other hand, Justice J S Khehar, who joined as CJ of Uttarakhand HC just four months ago on November 29, would now head Karnataka HC, replacing Justice Dinakaran.
With corruption charges against him being inquired into, Justice Dinakaran could not have been sent to a major high court and the Collegium zeroed in on Sikkim HC, which has a total strength of three judges. In comparison, the sanctioned strength of Karnataka HC is 50 judges. On the flip side, there is very little judicial work in Sikkim HC, with a total pendency of 88 civil and criminal cases; whereas Karnataka HC's pendency is 1,56,030.
In fact, the earlier transfer of JusticeGhosh to Sikkim HC was termed by the Bar Association as "punishment posting".Unhappy at the attribution of “punishment posting” attached with the Sikkim HC, Sikkim lawyers took exception to these remarks of KBA, adopting a resolution which stated that “Sikkim Bar members and the people here have been greatly pained with the insensitivity of J&K Bar”.
Meanwhile, reports emanating from Sikkim suggest lawyers there are protesting the transfer of tainted Karnataka Chief Justice Dinakaran to Sikkim HC.
Join LAWyersClubIndia's network for daily News Updates, Judgment Summaries, Articles, Forum Threads, Online Law Courses, and MUCH MORE!!"
