The Apex court Collegium headed by Chief Justice Uday Umesh Lalit has recommended to the Center the transfer of Orissa High Court Chief Justice (CJ) Justice S Muralidhar as CJ of Madras High Court, sources said on Thursday. .
Sources told PTI that the collegium, which also included Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, on Wednesday deliberated on the issues including transfer of high court judges.
In the meeting, the collegium resolved to transfer Justice Muralidhar to the Madras High Court in the same capacity.
He said that the collegium of the apex court can give a statement on this.
Justice Muralidhar, who was born on August 8, 1961, enrolled as an advocate on September 12, 1984, practiced in the courts of Chennai and later shifted to Delhi.
Justice Muralidhar was initially appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court in May 2006.
He was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 6, 2020.
A controversy had erupted after the Center issued his transfer notification around the midnight of February 26, 2020, the day a bench headed by him for failing to register an FIR against three BJP leaders who had allegedly led Delhi Police was pulled up for this. For the communal conflict in Northeast Delhi.
He, however, vented the controversy by saying that he had replied to the then CJI (retired) SA Bobde’s communication whether he was okay with the proposal and had no objection.
He took oath as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court on January 4, 2021.
The post of Chief Justice of Madras High Court fell vacant with the retirement of Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari on 12 September.
Ahead of the transfer of CJ Muralidhar, the apex court collegium has recently recommended the elevation of Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Justice Dipankar Dutta as a judge of the apex court.
On 12 September, the CJI Lalit-led collegium approved the appointment of 20 judges to the High Courts of Punjab and Haryana, Bombay and Karnataka.
Written by : KARAN SURI
