SC deplores litigants' tendency to attribute motives to judges

The Supreme Court has deplored the growing tendency of litigants attributing motives to judges and seeking transfer of cases from one court to another. "We will not allow the image of the judiciary to be tarnished by such accusations," a vacation bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and G S Singhvi observed, while dismissing the appeal filed by a widow, Mithilesh. The apex court said it had become a practice, in recent times, for litigants to seek transfer of cases from one judge to the other by attributing malafide or other motives. Mithilesh, whose husband and four family members were killed by a rival group over a land dispute, had sought the transfer of the case from a particular judge to any other judge within Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh. Mithilesh's husband Satyapal was murdered on 31st August 2003 in village Bhainsoli under Saleempur Police Station. He was an eyewitness to the murder of his father and three of his brothers on 25th November, 2002. She sought the transfer of the case on the ground that the accused who had killed five members of her family members, had been boasting in the village that they would get acquitted in the case as they had bought over the judge. They also threatened to kill her and one of the surviving family members to usurp their property, Mithilesh alleged in her petition. Mithilesh's plea for transfer was dismissed by the Sessions Court and the Allahahad High Court, following which she filed the SLP in the apex court. The accused facing trial in the murder cases under the UP Gangsters Act are Vijender Singh, Sunil Singh, Virender Singh, Kamarpal Singh, and Harinder Singh.

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