After their request to stop justice Zaka Haq’s transfer to Bombay HC’s Aurangabad bench was rejected, lawyers from the city have decided to restart their protests from Monday.
Chief Justice (CJ) Pradeep Nandrajog had rejected request made by the lawyers through High Court Bar Association (HCBA) for cancelling transfer orders of the judge who they termed as the most upright, honest & dedicated.
Currently, justice Haq is on a long leave till further notice & hadn’t joined the new posting at Aurangabad, as per the lawyers. News Agency has been following the issue since Jan 21 when High Court Bar Association (HCBA) passed a resolution to protest the transfer.
Well-known lawyer Shreerang Bhandarkar told media that they will be protesting with white ribbons on the 1st day that is on Monday. “It will be followed by pink & red ribbons on the next two days. Our protests would be completely peaceful till Feb 22,” he said.
Claiming that he had support of most of the lawyers practicing in High Court’s Nagpur bench & District & Sessions Court here, Bhandarkar warned that protests would be intensified after Feb 22. “Since the incumbent CJ is retiring on that date, we will move another resolution in High Court Bar Association (HCBA) for approaching the new CJ in this regard. We are hopeful our prayers would be heard. Otherwise, we will intensify the agitation & take steps like totally boycotting the court work,” Bhandarkar said.
Other lawyers said sudden transfer of the sitting judge, who was doing wonders in the judiciary & also streamlining the system, was nothing but a big humiliation of entire legal fraternity of city. Due to him the entire system is working well & bail matters are listed quickly. Earlier, it used to take days for these cases to come up for hearing. His efforts have also led to bringing discipline in the judicial system, which was working at snail’s pace. Just because he had issued a contempt notice to a lawyer from a powerful group & also High Court registrar, complaints were lodged against him they told News Agency.
The High Court Bar Association (HCBA) delegation led by senior counsel Shreehari Aney had met CJ Nandrajog in February 1st week with the resolution requesting cancellation of justice Haq’s transfer.
The CJ defended his decision stating that he wanted a dynamic lawyer at the Aurangabad bench who could also effectively look after Public Interest Litigations (PILs), besides regular civil & criminal cases.
Box — High Court Bar Association (HCBA) differs with lawyers’ stand
The High Court Bar Association (HCBA) has clarified that they haven’t taken any decision to restart protest against justice Haq’s transfer & wouldn’t be part of the lawyers group which would be doing it from Monday. “It must be an individual decision of some lawyers, who are free to do it. We haven’t taken any such decision as of now,” secretary Prafulla Khubalkar said.
On lawyers’ call to move another resolution & send it to new CJ after Feb 22, he stated that nothing of this sort has been discussed by the High Court Bar Association (HCBA)’s executive body.
Source Link
Picture Source :
