M A I N   N E W S

Forest Hill Fall-out
Two HC Judges to be shifted
Maneesh Chhibber
High Court Correspondent

Chandigarh, January 11
The Supreme Court is learnt to have initiated the process to transfer out two Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The two — Mr Justice Viney Mittal and Mr Justice Virender Singh — are the same Judges who had been issued show cause notice by the then Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mr Justice B.K. Roy, for having taken free membership of the Forest Hill Club, Karoran.

According to sources, while one Judge is being transferred to Orissa, the second one will go to the Chennai High Court.

Apart from accepting ex-officio membership for himself, Mr Justice Mittal was also alleged to have got his two sons — Avnish and Ratnish — made ex-officio members of the high-profile club, whose membership fee ran into lakhs of rupees. Ironically, ex-officio membership was taken even though both sons did not hold any official post. While Avnish is an advocate, Ratnish is stated to be an IT consultant.

According to sources, letters have been sent by the Supreme Court to these two Judges, informing them of the move to transfer them out and seeking their consent.

However, when asked, Mr Justice Viney Mittal denied having received any communiqué from the Supreme Court. Despite repeated attempts, Mr Justice Virender Singh could not be contacted.

Also, it could not be verified if the move to transfer both these Judges is linked to their having taken the membership of the club.

It may be recalled that after coming to know that two of his brother-Judges had taken ex-officio membership of the club, Chief Justice Roy had issued show cause notices to them, asking them to explain their position.

To this, both Judges had replied back, questioning the authority of the Chief Justice to issue such a notice to them. This was followed by Chief Justice Roy writing a detailed letter to both of them, citing the provisions under which he was vested with the authority to seek explanation from them.

Sources also disclosed that Chief Justice Roy had also brought the matter to the notice of the then Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice V.N. Khare, but no action was initiated at that time.

This stand-off between the two Judges and the then Chief Justice was reportedly one of the major reasons that led to strained relations.

This, along with many other reasons, resulted in 25 Judges of the High Court proceedings on mass one-day leave to protest the behaviour of Chief Justice Roy.

Later, acting on a PIL, the High Court had ordered the demolition of the club as it was found to be illegal and a consequence of large-scale irregularities in the forest laws. The appeal of the club management against the High Court order is still pending in the Supreme Court. Sometime back, the Supreme Court had given partial relief to the club management when it allowed it to re-start golf activity at the club by members only.