HYDERABAD: The Telangana Bar Association on Thursday decided to abstain from work indefinitely in protest against the Supreme Court Collegium’s reported proposal to transfer Justice A Abhishek Reddy from the Telangana High Court to the Patna High Court. Bar Association president V Raghunath convened an emergency meeting of the general body at 3 pm where it was resolved to oppose the proposed transfer. The members condemned what they called the “selective transfer” of one or two judges and felt the collegium’s move could dent the judiciary’s independence. The association urged the collegium to withdraw its proposal.
The association decided to contact Supreme Court judges, who are Telangana High Court’s alumni, and called on all the bar associations in the State to take leave of absence. Raghunath said guidelines and procedures were given a go-by and demanded that the transfer of Justice Abhishek Reddy be revoked.
Justice Abhishek Reddy, who was appointed permanent judge of the Telangana High Court on August 26, 2019, is the fifth senior-most judge (barring the Chief Justice). When checked last, the Supreme Court website didn’t upload any recommendation for the transfer of Justice Abhishek Reddy.
After the general body meeting, the Bar Association leaders visited the courtrooms and appealed to fellow advocates to boycott their duties. A number of advocates staged a protest at the high court gate demanding that Justice Abhishek Reddy’s transfer be rescinded. Bar associations of the district munsif courts also announced support to the protesting advocates and vowed to boycott court work.
A similar situation prevailed at the Gujarat High Court where advocates are opposing the reported proposal to transfer Justice Nikhil Kariel to Patna High Court. Justice Abhishek Reddy was part of the division bench, also comprising Justice J Sridevi, that delivered the verdict in the Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh case on November 9. The bench granted Raja Singh bail after he spent 77 days in jail for his alleged derogatory remarks on the Prophet. He was booked under the Preventive Detention (PD) Act which was challenged by him.
Justice Abhishek Reddy graduated from the Osmania University College of Law in 1990 and was admitted to the erstwhile Bar Council of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad in July 1990. He joined his father A Pulla Reddy’s chambers after enrolling. He represented clients in a variety of legal matters before numerous tribunals, and courts, including the district court, Rangareddy district, City Civil Court and the High Court.
He completed his LL.M in 1993 and post-graduation from the College of Law, Washington, in the US. In 2004, he was appointed Government Pleader-cum-Public Prosecutor in the Special Court under the AP Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, and acted as standing counsel for various institutions, including the Telangana State Council of Higher Education, JNTU, TFRC, and several NGOs.