TN BJP seeks action against lawyers opposing transfer of Madras HC CJ Sanjib Banerjee

Advocate R.C. Paul Kanagaraj, chief of the Tamil Nadu BJP lawyers wing in a memorandum submitted to the President of India, the Chief Justice of India, and the All India Bar Council to take strong action against a fringe group of lawyers who were creating a bad opinion on judiciary by unnecessary protests.

The BJP lawyer wing leader said that other than the present protest against the transfer of serving Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, the same group had conducted protests against the transfer of former Chief Justice of Madras High Court, Justice Vijaya Thahilramani.

R.C. Paul Kanagaraj while speaking to IANS said, "We have supported the decision taken by the Collegium which would be in the best interests of judiciary and 574 advocates have signed it."

A section of advocates, including 31 designated senior advocates, had voiced protest against the transfer of Justice Sanjib Banerjee from the post of Chief Justice of the Madras High Court to Meghalaya High Court. 

These advocates had written to the Collegium against the transfer of Justice Sanjib Banerjee that he was serving in a High Court with a sanctioned strength of 75 judges and transferring him to Meghalaya High court, which has only strength of four judges, was not good in the interests of judiciary. The advocates protesting on the transfer of Justice Banerjee had also raised the issue that he joined the Madras High Court as the Chief Justice only in January 2021 and that the stint of ten months was too short a period.

Justice Sanjib Banerjee was an outspoken judge and had issued orders against the Election Commission of India during the run-up to the April 2021 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. He had then asked the Election Commission of India as to whether the court should foist murder charges against the commission for not taking proper security measures during the elections in the midst of the Covid pandemic. This is widely believed to be one major reason for the sudden shifting of Justice Banerjee from the helm of affairs of the Madras High Court.

Meanwhile, the Union Justice department issued a notification on Tuesday transferring Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandary of the Allahabad High Court to the Madras High Court. Justice Bhandary had earlier served as the acting Chief Justice of Allahabad High court and is due to retire on September 22, 2022.