Advocates of the Gujarat High Court on Thursday staged a protest against the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation of transferring Justice Nikhil S. Kariel from the High Court to the Patna High Court.
Members of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association (GHAA), after an extraordinary general body meeting of the association at 2 p.m., decided to abstain from work indefinitely to oppose the move, which it termed a “death knell”.
“Justice Kariel is one of the finest, honest, upright and unbiased judges whose integrity is vouched by the entire Bar in one voice,” stated a resolution passed by the association. “It was conveyed to the Chief Justice [of the High Court] in open court that the entire Bar has unanimously expressed anguish over reports of the transfer of Justice Kariel.”
The association also decided to make representations to the Supreme Court judges hailing from the Gujarat High Court and Justice Aravind Kumar, the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court, to convey their disappointment over the move.
Senior advocates Mihir Thakore and Asim Pandya, on behalf of the protesting lawyers, said, “We’re here to oppose the death knell, death to the independence of judiciary because of the transfer of Justice Kariel”.
Earlier, hundreds of lawyers gathered in the first court as soon as they heard the news about the proposed transfer. The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, on Wednesday had recommended the transfer of three judges in two High Courts for administrative reasons. Apart from Justice Kariel’s transfer, the collegium also decided to move Justice A. Abhishek Reddy from Telangana High Court to the Patna High Court; and Justice T. Raja, the acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, to the Rajasthan High Court.