Amid demands for transfer, Gujarat HC chief justice goes on two-week leave

The chief justice of the Gujarat High Court has gone on leave for two weeks amid demands by a lawyers’ group that she be transferred. The demand was made on account of objections about the way certain cases were allocated to judges in the court.

The Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association on Monday unanimously passed a resolution demanding that Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal be transferred to another High Court, PTI reported. The association objected to “sudden changes” made to the roster, a document that lists out the allocation of cases to judges within a court.

“The manner in which sudden changes were made in the roster – the issue was covered in newspapers and social media – demeaned the authority and majesty of the high court in the eyes of litigants,” said Gujarat High Court Advocates’ Association President Brijesh Trivedi.

The association said in the resolution that it would make a representation to Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna in this regard.

A lawyer, Asim Pandya, had recently written to the president of the advocates association, questioning why Agarwal took away contempt of court cases from one judge and transferred them to another bench in January, according to PTI.

Last week, the chief justice also moved criminal matters from a single-judge bench to a division bench,…

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