Karnataka High Court sues Justice Shylendra

m.today

New Delhi, June 14: In an unusual action, Karnataka High Court on Monday approached the Supreme Court complaining against its own judge, Justice D.V. Shylendra Kumar, accusing him of ’’berating’’ Chief Justice P.D. Dinakaran by using ’’intemperate’’ language.

 

 

The petition has also sought the quashing of some orders passed by a Bench headed by Justice Shylendra Kumar, who had in the past attacked Justice Dinakaran in his blogs, in which he has questioned administrative decisions of Justice Dinakaran relating to the roster of the Benches and work allocation for judges in the Principal and Circuit Benches.

The petition filed through the Registrar General of the High Court was mentioned before a vacation Bench comprising Justices Deepak Verma and K.S. Radhakrishnan which decided to hear it on Tuesday.

A Supreme Court collegium had recommended that Justice Dinakaran be transferred to another High Court in the wake of corruption and land grab charges against him.

The High Court alleged that the Bench headed by Justice Shylendra Kumar was using “intemperate” language against the Chief Justice Dinakaran for publicity and even “orally threatened to initiate contempt proceedings” against the Registry if it would not comply with it orders.

Though, the practice of oral mentioning of the petition has been done away after Justice S.H. Kapadia took over as Chief Justice of India, the Bench decided to consider High Court’s petition after an oral mention as a special case.

However, when senior advocate Udaya Hola, mentioned the High Court’s petition, the Bench said some defects have been pointed out by the apex court Registry which have to be rectified before it can be listed.

After taking the corrective measures, Mr. Hola, former Advocate General of Karnataka mentioned the petition at the end of the day’s proceedings before the Bench, which said it will go through the files and hear the matter on Tuesday.

The senior advocate said, despite knowing that the four orders of the Bench headed by Justice Shylendra Kumar have been challenged in the apex court, the Judge has called for the files from the Registrar of the High Court and were hearing them in the open court on Monday.

In the petition filed by the High Court, it has been alleged that while hearing a tax/customs matter, a division bench of Justices Shylendra Kumar and N. Ananda, questioned the administrative decisions taken by Chief Justice Dinakaran and sought information from the Registrar General about the roster of the judges and allocation of work for judges of the Principal and Circuit Benches.

The High Court has sought quashing of four orders passed on consecutive hearings on June 4, 9, 10 and 11 respectively.

The Bench has questioned the decision of Chief Justice not listing the tax matter on a particular date before the circuit bench at Dharwar where Justice Shylendra Kumar was presiding over it.