Telangana high court: Lawyers boycott work over transfer of judge

Hyderabad: Condemning the proposal to transfer Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, the senior-most judge of the Telangana High Court, to the Punjab and Haryana High Court as a junior judge, advocates on Tuesday en masse boycotted work.

Demanding that Justice Kumar should be continued in the TSHC until he was appointed as the Chief Justice or Acting Chief Justice of any appropriate High Court in India, members of the Telangana High Court Bar Association (THCBA) unanimously resolved that all advocates of the Telangana High Court would abstain court works till Saturday.

Alleging that the decision of the Supreme Court Collegium was “nothing but humiliation of the Telangana advocates and judges”, members of THCBA termed it an “attack on the nobility and independence of the judiciary.”

The advocates charged that “politicians stationed at Delhi and others holding high powers in the helm of affairs at the apex court” were trying to put their choice of people in top positions in the judiciary.

The association resolved to send a delegation of their executive committee, along with designated senior advocates, to take up the issue with the President, the Chief Justice of India, the Prime Minister, the judges of Supreme Court Collegium and the Union law minister.

It was unanimously resolved to request all presidents of district courts, subordinate courts, and their association members to abstain from work.

Speaking at the general body meeting of THCBA, senior advocate L. Ravichander said, “The institution is lacking independence. In the name of judicial administration, some influential people in the apex court, and some politicians, are appointing people of their preference into the higher ranks of the judiciary. Noble judges like Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar should not face any problems, and that applies to all sincere judges.”