Karnataka High Court 'sues' its own judge

Bangalore/ New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court has approached the Supreme Court against its own sitting judge, Justice Shylendra Kumar, for opposing the court's registrar.

Justice Kumar had questioned the Registrar's decision of taking a case away from him and transferring it to another bench. He has alleged that P D Dinakaran, who was Chief Justice of the High Court, had ordered the Registrar to transfer the case.

Justice Kumar's has brought disrepute to the Karnataka High Court by its challenging authority, a petition before the country’s top court alleges.

Justice Kumar, who was the first senior judge to declare his assets, had passed critical comments against Dinakaran in an open court a few days back.

After doubts were raised that Dinakaran was interfering with the hearing of an appeal relating to taxes, Justice Kumar questioned his authority to interfere with the proceedings of the court. He also warned the registrars of the High Court that contempt of court suit would be filed against them if they fail to file a detailed report on this case by June 14.

When Justice Kumar was on the principal bench of the High Court, an appeal relating to taxes was transferred to it on March 4. The hearing in the matter was adjourned to March 8 but later it was suddenly shifted to Dharwad circuit bench. Justice Kumar had requested Dinakaran to permit him to officiate in the principal bench for one day on March 8 and hear the said appeal, but it as declined.

After the appeal was transferred to the circuit bench, the case came back again to the principal bench here. Although date of the hearing had been fixed, it was not included in the proceedings. When Justice Kumar questioned the registrars about the issue, they said that they do not have any information about it, as the appeal is before Dinakaran.

Angered by this response, Justice Kumar commented that Dinakaran does not have power to interfere with the court work and questioned the CJ’s propriety in staying away from court proceedings, and continuing his interference with the justice delivery system.