Chandigarh, May 22
What led to the crisis in the Punjab and Haryana High Court when 25 judges went on mass leave on April 19 this year? It now transpires that more than anything else, it was the issue of posting of judicial officers in Punjab that led to the showdown.
Never before in the annals of the judiciary had so many judges gone on leave to protest against the attitude of a Chief Justice -- Mr Justice B.K. Roy.
It was only after the intervention of senior Supreme Court Judges that the Judges came back to work, but not before the unprecedented crisis had hit the headlines all over the country.
What soured the relations between the Chief Justice and most of his brother judges was the issue of appointment of District and Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur, A.K. Sharma as Registrar (Administration) in the High Court.
While the Judges believed that Mr Justice Roy had no power to appoint Mr Sharma as Registrar without their concurrence, the Chief Justice thought otherwise.
Even when the issue of Mr Sharma's posting was still pending, District and Sessions Judge, Ferozepore, M.M. Singh Bedi was transferred and posted as Registrar (Judicial) by the Chief Justice.
The situation became so grave that the Judges, during the course of at least two Full Court meetings, passed resolutions voicing their protest. They also asked Mr Justice Roy to undo the posting order of Mr Sharma. But, again, the Chief Justice refused to relent.
It all started when the Chief Justice transferred and posted Mr Sharma as Registrar (Administration) on January 20, 2004. Mr Bedi's posting as Registrar (Judicial) was ordered later.
The Judges pointed out Article 235 of the Constitution to argue that the consent of the High Court (Full Court) was necessary to transfer judicial officers, but the Chief Justice cited Article 229 to buttress his own claim.
Documents in the possession of The Tribune show that on February 25, 2004, all Judges of the High Court, except Mr Justice B.K. Roy and Mr Justice Amar Dutt, passed a resolution that "without the concurrence of the Full Court no member of the judicial/superior judicial service be transferred and posted out of cadre, whether by way of deputation or otherwise".
However, Mr Justice Roy dubbed the resolution as "extremely unfortunate" and said that it was not even on the agenda of the meeting. He then went on to declare the resolution "void ab-initio and not binding".
However, on March 4, the Judges gave a notice to the Chief Justice under which they urged him to convene an "emergent meeting of the Full Court" to discuss, among other things, the posting of Mr Sharma as District and Sessions Judge, Gurdaspur, in the light of the resolution passed by the Full Court on February 25.
More was to follow. At the Full Court meeting of March 17, 2004, all the Judges except the Chief Justice resolved that Mr A.K Sharma be asked to resume his duties back at Gurdaspur. The Judges also declared that the Chief Justice had no authority to dub their earlier resolution void.
