The Supreme Court Collegium on Wednesday stood firm by its resolve to recommend the transfer of Manipur High Court judge, Justice M.V. Muralidharan, to the Calcutta High Court for “better administration of justice”.
The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud had proposed to shift Justice Muralidharan to the Calcutta High Court on October 9.
The very next day, on October 10, Justice Muralidharan had requested the Collegium to either transfer him back to his parent High Court of Madras or let him stay on in the Manipur High Court.
“We have considered the requests made by Mr. Justice Muralidharan in his above communication. The Collegium does not find merit in the requests made by him. The Collegium, therefore, resolves to reiterate its October 9, 2023 recommendation to transfer Mr. Justice Muralidharan to the High Court at Calcutta,” the Collegium note said on October 11.
The Collegium said it had consulted a Supreme Court judge conversant with the affairs of the Manipur High Court and the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice before recommending Justice Muralidharan’s transfer.
Justice Muralidharan was functioning as the Acting Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court. The office of the Manipur Chief Justice had fallen vacant in February 2023 following the elevation of Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar to the Supreme Court.
The Collegium had recommended Delhi High Court judge, Justice Siddharth Mridul, for appointment as the regular Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court in July. However, the proposal had continued to remain pending with the government for months.
On October 9, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the number two judge in the Supreme Court and a member of the Collegium, informed in open court during the hearing of a case concerning the chronic delay in judicial appointments, that the government had written to say that it would be issuing the notification of appointment of Justice Mridul as the Manipur Chief Justice shortly. The Collegium had proposed the transfer of Justice Muralidharan out of Manipur on the very same day, October 9.
Trigger for violence
A March 27 order passed by Justice Muralidharan, directing the Manipur government to “consider the case of the petitioners for inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, expeditiously,” is considered one of the immediate triggers for the ethnic violence in the State.
The order had drawn flak from the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Chandrachud remarking in open court that it should be stayed. However, the court had stayed it and at the time when Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the State of Manipur, said such a move may exacerbate tensions.
The Collegium has also separately recommended fresh judicial appointments to the High Courts of Kerala, Tripura, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Bombay, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
