Justice Muralidhar, who ordered FIR against hate speeches, transferred to Punjab & Haryana HC
Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court following approval of a February 12 recommendation to the effect from the Supreme Court Collegium.
On the day he pulled up the Delhi Police over its inaction in filing FIRs against the BJP leaders who made hate speeches, Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi High Court was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court following approval of a February 12 recommendation to the effect from the Supreme Court Collegium. Read in Tamil | Bengali
A notification from the Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law and Justice said: “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 222 of the Constitution of India, the President, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to transfer Shri Justice S Muralidhar, Judge of the Delhi High Court, as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and to direct him to assume charge of his office in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.”
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The notification follows the recommendation passed by the Collegium headed by Chief Justice of Indian S A Bobde. Protesting Justice Muralidhar’s transfer, the Delhi High Court Bar Association had urged the Collegium to “revisit” and recall its recommendation, saying such transfers “tend to erode and dislodge the faith of the common litigant in the justice dispensation system”.
Known for his bold pronouncements on communal violence and personal liberty, Justice Muralidhar delivered the Hashimpura verdict, convicting personnel of the Uttar Pradesh PAC for the 1987 mass killings, and also convicted Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He was part of the two-judge bench along with then Chief Justice A P Shah that delivered the landmark verdict decriminalising homosexuality.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
