Chief Justice draws up duty list for N-E, faces judges’ fire

Soon after he assumed charge in February, Roy took the initiative of enforcing the Presidential Orders that require the High Court to function on a regular basis not only from its ‘‘principal seat’’ at Guwahati in Assam but also from its ‘‘permanent benches’’ in the Capitals of the other six states.

Exercising his powers under the Presidential Orders issued a decade ago, Roy ‘‘nominated’’ judges by rotation to the permanent benches so that litigants from those six states do not have to go all the way to Guwahati.

This reform was meant to address a long-standing grievance of the six states that the permanent benches had, in practice, been reduced to circuit benches of the Guwahati High Court which functioned only as and when any judges were assigned to them.

About two months ago, 15 out of the 17 judges of the Guwahati High Court complained in writing against Justice Roy to Chief Justice of India R C Lahoti. This triggered off the unprecedented move to transfer a Chief Justice twice in six months.

On August 17, CJI Lahoti wrote to Justice Roy announcing the ‘‘proposal’’ to transfer him from the Guwahati High Court to the Sikkim High Court ‘‘in the public interest and for the better administration of justice.’’

In terms of the memorandum of procedure for appointment and transfer of Chief Justices and judges of High Courts, Justice Lahoti’s letter sought Roy’s ‘‘response’’ to the transfer proposal.