Madras High Court will see its fifth Acting Chief Justice in 3 and a half months if Justice S Muralidhar transfer is not cleared soon

Following its meeting on November 24, the Supreme Court Collegium recommended the transfer of Madras High Court Acting Chief Justice (CJ) T Raja to the Rajasthan High Court.

The Collegium also recommended the transfer of another Madras High Court judge, Justice VM Velumani, to the Calcutta High Court.

At the same time, the Collegium recommended the transfers of Justice Battu Devanand from the Andhra Pradesh High Court and Justice D Nagarjun from the Telangana High Court to the Madras High Court.

If the Central government clears these transfers, the Madras High Court will continue to function at 72 per cent of its sanctioned strength of 75 judges, with 21 vacancies.

More pertinently, if these transfers go through, the Madras High Court will get its third Acting CJ in a little over two months.

Justice Raja took over as the Acting CJ on September 22 this year, after the then Acting CJ M Duraiswamy retired just nine days after taking over the office. 

Justice Duraiswamy had been appointed Acting CJ after Justice MN Bhandari demitted office on September 12.

Subsequently, the Collegium had, on September 28, recommended that Orissa High Court Chief Justice S Muralidhar be appointed as Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.

However, the Central government is yet to clear the same.

If Justice Raja's transfer to the Rajasthan High Court goes through, the senior most judge, Justice Paresh Upadhyay is likely to take over as Acting CJ.

However, Justice Upadhyay too will retire from service within just three weeks, on December 13, 2022.

If the appointment of Justice Muralidhar does not come through by mid-January, the next senior most judge, Justice PN Prakash, will take over as acting CJ.

Justice Prakash will also have a short tenure, since he is due to retire on January 11, 2023. Justice S Vaidyanathan will fill the post on that date.

In short, if the government does not clear Justice Muralidhar's file before January 11, 2023, the Madras High Court will see its fifth acting Chief Justice in three and a half months.

At the time of their retirement, both Justices Bhandari and Duraiswamy had expressed hope that new judges will be appointed to the High Court soon. Justice Bhandari had said that the shortage of judicial officers was the primary reason for the rising pendency of cases. 

In fact, between January this year and now, eight judges of the Madras High Court have retired from service.

The series of retirements began with Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana attaining superannuation on February 27 this year. She was followed by Justices V Parthiban, V Bharathidasan, R Pongiappan, M Govindaraj, and K Kalyanasundaram on April 23, May 6, May 11, May 18, and May 26, respectively.

Justice Bhandari retired on September 13 this year and Justice Duraiswamy retired on September 22 this year.