New Delhi: Justice S Muralidhar cleared Thursday the air over the controversy on his transfer from the Delhi High Court to Punjab and Haryana High Court (P&H HC). He said when intimated he had replied to Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde’s communication that he was fine with the proposal and had no objection.
The controversy erupted after the Centre issued Justice Muralidhar’s transfer notification close to midnight of February 26 – the day a bench headed by him had pulled up Delhi Police for failing to register FIRs against three BJP leaders for their alleged hate speeches which purportedly led to the recent violence in northeast Delhi.
Justice Muralidhar (58), who received a grand farewell Thursday from a huge gathering including judges and lawyers amid a big round of applause, said he wanted to clear the confusion on his transfer and narrated the sequence of events from the time he received CJI’s communication till February 26.
The Supreme Court collegium, headed by the CJI, had in a meeting February 12 recommended the transfer of Justice Muralidhar to P&H HC .
Explaining the transfer process, Muralidhar said the 5-member Collegium sends to the Centre a recommendation that a judge of a high court should be transferred to another high court. The judge concerned is not at this stage under orders of transfers. That happens only when the Collegium’s recommendation fructifies into a notification.
“In my case, the Collegium’s decision was communicated to me February 17 by the CJI by a letter which sought my response. I acknowledged receipt of the letter, I was then asked to clarify what I meant. As I saw it, if I was to be transferred from the Delhi High Court any way, I was fine with moving to the Punjab and Haryana High Court,” informed Muralidhar.
“I therefore clarified to the CJI that I did not object to the proposal. An explanation for my transfer reached the press… February 20 quoting ‘sources in the Supreme Court Collegium’, confirming what has been indicated to me a couple of days earlier,” added the transferred judge.
The CJI’s letter dated February 14 was delivered to Justice Muralidhar February 17, the day when the family’s pet labrador ‘Sakhi’ breathed her last.
Justice Muralidhar said February 26 was perhaps the longest working day of his life as a judge of the Delhi High Court, where he has spent 14 years on the bench. He said it began at 12:30 am with a sitting at his residence with Justice AJ Bhambhani, under the orders of Justice GS Sistani, to deal with a PIL filed by Rahul Roy seeking safe passage of ambulances carrying the injured riot victims.
Justice Muralidhar’s mother, wife Usha Ramanathan, former Delhi High Court Chief Justice AP Shah, senior advocate Shanti Bhushan and former Delhi University VC Upendra Baxi were also present.
Bidding adieu to Justice Muralidhar, Delhi HC CJ DN Patel said it was an occasion which has come with a saddening effect and his absence will be felt institutionally as well as personally.
A controversy had erupted in 2018 when Justice Muralidhar had quashed the transit remand order by a trial court and directed release of rights activist Gautam Navlakha from house arrest in the Koregaon Bhima violence case.
In October 2018, a division bench headed by Justice Muralidhar had also convicted 16 former policemen of Uttar Pradesh in the Hashimpura massacre case. He was also heading the bench which in the same year had awarded life imprisonment to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and sent him to jail in one of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
PTI