Delhi High Court judge Justice S. Muralidhar's transfer to the Punjab and Haryana High Court right in the middle of the hearing in the sensitive matter pertaining to the violence in Delhi and immediately after he took a stern view of the Delhi Police's handling of the situation has raised the hackles of the legal fraternity.
The outrage has to do with Muralidhar's reputation of being a judge with progressive outlook who takes bold decisions that are in the interest of citizens and who does not give in to external pressures. The government's order to transfer him out of the Delhi High Court is widely being viewed as being punitive in nature.
Even the Supreme Court collegium's recommendation on February 12 to transfer the judge to the Punjab and Haryana High Court had met with strong protests from the bar association. The Delhi High Court Bar Association had protested the collegium's recommendation that Muralidhar be transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, saying the move “impedes free and fair delivery of justice.”
“Such transfer is not only detrimental to our noble institution but also tends to erode and dislodge the faith of the common litigant in the justice dispensation system. Such transfer also impedes free and fair delivery of justice by the honourable bench,” the association had said, with its members holding a strike on February 20.
Known as the darling of the lawyers, Muralidhar is seen as a judge who is liberal, principled and bold, yet simple and having a pleasing demeanour.
Having started his practice in the Madras High Court in 1984, Muralidhar moved to Delhi in 1987, where he began practising in the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court. He was appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court in 2006.
The judge is best known for being a part of the high court bench which passed the progressive judgment in 2009 that read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, in effect decriminalising homosexuality. He was also on the bench that gave the order in 2010 allowing information to be given under the Right to Information on how many judges had declared their assets. In October 2018, he had passed an order sentencing 16 police officers to life imprisonment for their role in the Hashimpura massacre. He was also a part of the high court bench, which, in December 2018, convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his role in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.
His supporters feel that he rubbed the powers that be the wrong way when in August 2018, he was part of a bench which stayed the transit remand of activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon case.
