SC Collegium recommends transfer of 23 judges of HCs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended transfer of 23 judges of different high courts, including Gujarat High Court judge Justice Hemant M Prachchhak who had dismissed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.

The Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant, in its meeting held on August 3 recommended transfer of nine judges of the high courts for “better administration of justice”.

According to a Collegium resolution uploaded on the apex court website, out of these nine names, four judges are from the Gujarat High Court while four are from the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The other judge is from the Allahabad High Court.

mmended transfer of Justice Prachchhak from the Gujarat High Court to the Patna High Court, the resolution said.

According to the Collegium resolution, the other three judges of the Gujarat High Court — Justices Alpesh Y Kogje, Kumari Gita Gopi and Samir J Dave — have been recommended to be transferred to the high courts of Allahabad, Madras and Rajasthan respectively.

According to the August 3 resolution, Punjab and Haryana High Court judges — Justices Arvind Singh Sangwan, Avneesh Jhingan, Raj Mohan Singh and Arun Monga have been recommended to be transferred to the high courts of Allahabad, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively.

The Collegium has also recommended the transfer of Allahabad High Court judge Justice Vivek Kumar Singh to the Madras High Court.

In 14 separate resolutions of August 10 uploaded on the apex court website, the Collegium has recommended transfer of 14 judges of different high courts for better administration of justice.

One of the resolutions said that on August 3, the Collegium had proposed the transfer of Justice Madhuresh Prasad from the Patna High Court to the Calcutta High Court.

Another resolution said that the Collegium had proposed the transfer of Justice C Sumalatha of the High Court for the State of Telangana to the Gujarat High Court.

However, the Collegium acceded to her request in regard to the place to which she is being transferred and resolves to recommend that she be transferred to the High Court of Karnataka instead of the High Court of Gujarat.

It has recommended transfer of Justice Narendar G of the Karnataka High Court to the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

The Collegium has recommended transfer of Telangana High Court judges — Justices Munnuri Laxman, M Sudheer Kumar and G Anupama Chakravarthy — to the high courts of Rajasthan, Madras and Patna respectively.

Similarly, it has recommended transfer of Calcutta High Court judges — Justices Bibek Chaudhuri, Lapita Banerji and Shekhar B Saraf — to the high courts of Patna, Punjab and Haryana and Allahabad respectively.

The Collegium has also recommended transfer of Andhra Pradesh High Court judges — Justices Duppala Venkata Ramana and C Manavendranath Roy — to the high courts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat respectively.

It has recommended the transfer of three judges of the Allahabad High Court — Justices Rajendra Kumar-IV, S P Kesarwani and Prakash Padia — to the high courts of Madhya Pradesh, Calcutta and Jharkhand respectively.