Rebel HC judge to be shunted out

While outgoing Chief Justice V N Khare admitted he was exasperated that he had no powers to even seek an explanation from 8216;deviant1...

While outgoing Chief Justice V N Khare admitted he was exasperated that he had no powers to even seek an explanation from 8216;deviant8217; judges, the Supreme Court collegium has set in motion the process to shunt out Justice G S Singhvi of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for leading the first-ever strike by members of the higher judiciary.

What may come as a bigger punishment to Singhvi is an emerging consensus in the collegium that, despite his seniority, he should never be chief justice of any high court.

This would be a great setback for Singhvi considering that, till he led the strike on April 19, he was regarded in legal circles as somebody who could be elevated to the Supreme Court and become Chief Justice of India in another eight years.

Last Sunday, Singhvi suffered the mortification of being pulled up along with two of his colleagues by Chief Justice Khare for engaging in 8216;8216;trade unionism.8217;8217;

Singhvi could have spared much stress to the institution if he had offered to resign especially after he was shown a letter from President Kalam expressing anguish over the strike by judges.

Since the option of his elevation to the apex court has anyway been ruled out on account of the strike, there is a view in the collegium that Singhvi should not be allowed to become a high court chief justice either.

If Singhvi remains, as is likely, at the high court level, then he will sooner or later earn the dubious distinction of being the first judge to have a junior as his chief justice wherever he is transferred.

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Singhvi was first appointed to the Rajasthan high court in 1990 and is due to retire only in December 2010. The All India seniority list of judges shows that after October 2007, there will not be a single high court justice anywhere in the country senior to Singhvi.

Justice Khare retired today but his successor, Justice S Rajendra Babu, is expected to carry on with the steps that need to be taken to transfer Singhvi out of Chandigarh.

Incidentally, Justice Babu was present at Justice Khare8217;s residence last Sunday when he gave a dressing down to Singhvi and two other senior most judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice V K Bali and Justice H S Bedi.

The collegium is also learnt to be considering the option of transferring Justice Bali and Justice Bedi as well.

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The strike was in the form of a mass leave by 25 high court judges protesting the notices by their chief justice, Justice B K Roy, to two of them for taking free membership in a club embroiled in litigation.