High court judge who faced flak to sit with senior judge

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Bhushan R Gavai said, “Under the Constitutional scheme, judges of high courts are in no way inferior to judges of the Supreme Court.” The court said that as an appellate court, although the Supreme Court has powers to affirm, modify or reverse a decision of the high court, it has no administrative control over the administration of the high court or its judges.

The observations of the court hold significance as it comes close on the heels of a recent Supreme Court order by a bench of justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan de-rostering a judge of the Allahabad high court from hearing criminal cases. The direction issued to the chief justice of Allahabad high court was subsequently withdrawn by the same bench following a letter by CJI requesting the bench to reconsider the direction.

Hearing a suo motu contempt petition initiated on July 29 against one N Peddi Raju and two lawyers for scandalous allegations against a Telangana high court judge, the top court said, “When scandalous allegations are made against high court judges, it becomes the duty of this court to protect the judges.”