SC Collegium proposes transfer of Gujarat HC judge who refused to stay Rahul’s conviction

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New Delhi, August 13, 2023: The Supreme Court Collegium, in its August 3 meeting, has recommended the transfer of four Gujarat High Court judges, including the judge who had recently delivered the verdict refusing to grant a stay on the conviction for defamation to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, and another who recused himself from hearing activist Teesta Setalvad’s bail plea.

Noting that the recommendations for transfer are being made for “better administration of justice”, the judges recommended for transfer are Justice A Y Kogje to Allahabad High Court, Justice Gita Gopi to Madras High Court, Justice Hemant Prachchhak to Patna High Court and Justice Samir Dave to Rajasthan High Court.

Of the four judges, Justice Gopi is the only judge who directly joined the judiciary at the cadre of district judge, while the remaining three were practising lawyers before being elevated as High Court judges.

Justice Gopi, who was elevated to the HC in 2020, had tried the Ishrat Jahan encounter case when she was the special designated CBI judge at the Ahmedabad city court. In 2012, Justice Gopi, who at the time was the principal district judge of Sabarkantha, and was conducting trial in the case related to the killing of three British nationals at Prantij during the 2002 riots — one of the nine SC-supervised SIT re-investigated cases — was transferred to Ahmedabad city court. At the time, Justice Gopi was about to conclude the trial in the case in which four persons, three of them British, were killed near Prantij in February 2002.

At HC, Justice Gopi, in April this year recused herself from hearing Rahul Gandhi’s petition seeking a stay on his conviction. Following her recusal, the matter had gone before Justice Prachchhak, who too now stands recommended for transfer.

Justice Prachchhak had refused to grant a stay on Gandhi’s conviction, which now stands overturned by the SC as an interim measure. Justice Prachchhak was elevated as a judge at the HC in October 2021, as was Justice Samir Dave.

Justice Dave had recently recused himself from hearing Mumbai-based activist Teesta Setalvad’s petition seeking quashing of the complaint alleging her of fabricating evidence in relation to the 2002 Gujarat riots, and prior to that, had also recused himself from hearing Setalvad’s bail plea.

Justice Dave had recently also caused a stir for his controversial open court remarks, invoking Manusmriti to assert women’s childbirth capabilities during a minor rape survivor’s plea praying for termination of her pregnancy.