Supreme Court cancels HC judge’s transfer
In a clear sign of the increasing clout of the Narendra Modi government, the Supreme Court collegium has cancelled its earlier decision to transfer Justice Valmiki Mehta of the Delhi High Court to the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court.
Sources told DNA that the five-member collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, met last week and decided to write to the Centre, informing it of its decision to recall the proposal made by the collegium to transfer Justice Mehta. Justice Mehta will continue in the Delhi High Court.
The move comes almost five months after the Centre, after sitting on the collegium’s recommendation for almost a year, quietly sent it back for reconsideration. It had also sent back a similar recommendation for transfer of Justice MR Shah of the Gujarat High Court to the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Before doing so, the Centre had also indicated to the SC its reluctance to process the transfers.
All the transfers had been recommended by the collegium, then headed by previous CJI Tirath Singh Thakur. The failure of the government to process the recommendations had became a major bone of contention between the higher judiciary under CJI Thakur and the Modi government, with the …read more
