NEW DELHI: Lawyers of Delhi High Court abstained from work on Thursday in protest against the transfer of Justice S Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) also expressed shock over the transfer of the judge.
“All the members of the bar cooperated in the protest as the said transfer of Justice S Muralidhar is a rarest of rare case and the majesty of our institution is at stake,” DHCBA executive member and advocate Naginder Benipal said.
In an emergent executive committee meeting on Wednesday, the bar association had requested its members to abstain from work on Thursday as a mark of protest. The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, in a meeting on February 12, had recommended transfer of Justice Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Justice Muralidhar was number three in the Delhi High Court, his parent high court.
In its resolution, the bar association said, “Such transfers are not only detrimental to our noble institution but also tend to erode and dislodge the faith of the common litigant in the justice dispensation system. Such transfers also impede free and fair delivery of justice by the bench.”Justice Muralidhar was also part of the high court bench, which had first ordered decriminalisation of IPC Section 377, according freedom of sexual expression to the LGBTQ community.
A controversy had erupted in 2018 when Justice Muralidhar had quashed the transit remand order by a trial court and directed release of human rights activist Gautam Navlakha from house arrest in connection with the violence and rioting at Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra.