Shifted, Justice Rawal leaves during hearing

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 30

In a sudden turn of events, a Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge hearing a complaint filed by Justice Ranjit Singh against former Deputy CMSukhbir Singh Badal and MLA Bikram Singh Majithia today got up during the proceeding apparently after receiving his transfer order.

The order came more than a month after the Supreme Court Collegium recommended Justice Amit Rawal’s transfer to the Kerala High Court. Justice Rawal has been directed to assume charge of his office in the Kerala High Court by November 13.

Senior advocate APS Deol was addressing the Bench on Justice Ranjit Singh’s behalf on the issue of maintainability and other aspects of the complaint when a court official said something to Justice Rawal. The Judge, in turn, got up and left for his chamber even before Deol could conclude his arguments.

Addressing the Bench in the post-lunch session for nearly two hours, Deol carried forward his argument from the previous day, adding that Justice Ranjit Singh was performing his statutory duty both as a public servant as well as an aggrieved person as a commission member.

Among other things, he argued that the stage for raising objections on the complaint’s maintainability was over. The court had expressed satisfaction in its earlier order and issued summons to the two after taking cognisance of the offence.

Deol added the two neither raised objections regarding the maintainability of the complaint nor challenged the order before a higher court. Representing the respondents, senior advocate Puneet Bali raised objections on an affidavit filed by Justice Ranjit Singh along with his complaint describing himself as Commission Chairman. Bali submitted the complainant should have said he was former chairman at the time of filing.

Deol was going ahead with rebuttal of submissions by Bali and senior counsel Ashok Aggarwal, when Justice Rawal received some information. By the time, the notification on Justice Rawal’s transfer was all over WhatsApp.

A controversy of sorts had earlier broken after Justice Ranjit Singh had objected to the way his case was being handled by Justice Rawal. Justice Ranjit Singh had sent an SMS to the then Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma. “The Judge is under transfer and is showing undue haste in dealing with the case. I apprehend that justice may suffer. I am bringing it to your notice as Acting Chief Justice to take appropriate action,” Justice Ranjit Singh had concluded.