Transfer of Justice Mohinder Pal

Differences crop up between CJ, judge

Chandigarh, January 4
Difference of opinion between the Chief Justice (CJ) and a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has surfaced, yet again. This time it is on the issue of the Chief Justice going public on the transfer of a high court judge; and another judge reacting to the assertions made by the CJ.

Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is believed to have told a newspaper that an order in a Gurgaon property case was one "major reason" behind Justice Mohinder Pal's transfer.

In the order, Haryana Urban Development Authority had been asked to allot 9.527 acres to Orchid Infrastructure Developers Private Limited.

Justice Pal's judgment had set aside the sessions court's order that had stopped this allotment. After his transfer from the high court here, Justice Pal has been sworn in as a Judge of the Gujarat High Court. Information reveals Chief Justice Gogoi's reported comments on the issue have not gone down well with at least one of the judges.

In an unprecedented move, the Judge - Justice K. Kannan - has shot off a communication to judges of the high court here, expressing his disapproval on the matter. The letter is apparently in response to the New Year's greetings.

The letter, apparently critical of the comments made by the CJ before the media, is significant, as the administrative side of the judiciary functions from behind thick drapes; and whispers in the judicial corridors are seldom confirmed in public. The prevailing mood among the judges is that the judiciary's image needs to be protected by not making public the details of internal mechanism to check abrasions.

This is the third time in the recent past that differences with the Chief Justice have emerged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In June 2008, the judges were divided over holding of the interviews for Additional District and Sessions Judges in Punjab.

Prior to this, on April 19, 2004, as many as 25 judges had proceeded on mass leave in protest against the functioning of the then Chief Justice, BK Roy. Only one judge had attended the court with him.

The relations between Chief Justice Roy and the judges caused considerable worry to the Supreme Court and that led to Roy’s transfer to the Gauhati High Court at Guwahati.