Over 200 practising Advocates of the Madras High Court has written to Supreme Court Collegium seeking to know the reason as to why Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee has been transferred to Meghalaya High Court.
Expressing their discontentment with the decision, the Advocates pointed out in the letter that Justice Sanjib Banerjee had served Madras High Court as Chief Justice only for ten months. He had assumed office on January 4th, 2021, and is expected to retire in November 2023.
Further they posed the question whether the transfer was for 'public interest' or for 'better administration of justice', the two factors that are taken into consideration regarding the transfer of a judge.
The letter to this regard read:
"While transfers for better administration of justice may be necessary in principle, members of the Bar have a right to know why a competent, fearless judge and an efficient administrator of a large High court where more than 35,000 cases were filed this year be transferred to a Court where the total number of cases instituted in a month is on an average of 70-75".
The letter further read:
"The recommendation to appoint him as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court was made less than a year back in December 2020 obviously after considering his experience as a judge of the Calcutta High Court and suitability to head a Chartered High Court. It is therefore inexplicable that the Collegium should revise its opinion and recommend a transfer."
Praising Chief Justice Banerjee, the Advocates in the letter stated that he had passed several orders upholding the constitutional rights, values of free speech, secularism, free and fair elections, right to health, and state accountability that may well have earned the ire of those in power and criticising his transfer, they said such decisions damages the reputation of an honest judge and lowers the image of the judiciary before the eyes of the public.
The Advocates have requested the Collegium to reconsider the decision to transfer him from Madras High Court, which is a chartered court having sanctioned strength of 75 judicial officers to Meghalaya court that was formed in 2013 with a current strength of two judges.
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