NEW DELHI: In another reshuffle in higher judiciary, seven judges were on Monday transferred to different high courts. This is the second set of transfers of high court judges within a week after, 15 judges of 11 high courts were transferred on October 5 following recommendations by the Supreme Court collegium last month.
The Patna High Court got three new judges as Justice Rajan Gupta of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice P B Bajanthri of the Karnataka High Court and Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma from the Rajasthan High Court have been transferred there.
Justice T S Sivagnanam has been transferred from the Madras High Court to the Calcutta HC while Justice Sureshwar Thakur of the Himachal Pradesh HC has been sent to the Punjab and Haryana HC. Justice T Amarnath Goud has been sent from Telangana High Court to Tripura HC while Justice Subhash Chand of the Allahabad High Court has been moved to the Jharkhand HC.
Besides, three advocates and two judicial officers were elevated as judges of the Rajasthan High Court. The judicial officers to be elevated were Vinod Kumar Bharwani and Madan Gopal Vyas while the advocates who were made judges included Farjand Ali, Anoop Kumar Dhand and Sudesh Bansal.
In separate developments, Justice Prakash Srivastava was on Monday administered the oath of office as the new chief justice of the Calcutta High Court while Delhi High Court Chief Justice D N Patel administered the oath of office to Justices Yashwant Varma and Chandra Dhari Singh who were transferred as judges from Allahabad High Court on October 5.
Between August 8 and September 1, the Collegium had processed over 100 names recommended by various high courts and had finally sent 68 names to the government for appointment as judges to 12 high courts. Later, more names were sent to the government.
‘Will see if ED can attach property under PMLA’
The SC has agreed to examine the legal issue of whether the Enforcement Directorate can attach ancestral properties of the accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as “proceeds of crime”. The question came up for consideration before the top court on an appeal filed by the ED challenging an order of the Karnataka High Court which observed that action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act cannot proceed in respect of the ancestral property.
‘Court will not rescue non-cooperating people’
The court shall not come to the rescue of an accused who is not cooperating with the probe agency and is absconding, the Supreme Court has said refusing to grant anticipatory bail to a man in an alleged rioting case. Hearing the accused’s plea against the Allahabad HC order which rejected his petition, the top court said he was continuously absconding and proclamation proceedings under Section 82 of the CrPC has also been initiated against him.