Justice Raja Retires As Acting Chief Justice Of Madras High Court Despite Collegium Recommending His Transfer To Rajasthan High Court In Nov 2022
Justice T Raja on Wednesday retired as the Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court. Justice Raja, who assumed the charge of acting Chief Justice on September 22, 2022, after the superannuation of Justice M Duraiswamy continued on the post till today, making him the first native judge to hold the post for such a long time in the past 25 years.During his farewell function, Justice...
Justice T Raja on Wednesday retired as the Acting Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.
Justice Raja, who assumed the charge of acting Chief Justice on September 22, 2022, after the superannuation of Justice M Duraiswamy continued on the post till today, making him the first native judge to hold the post for such a long time in the past 25 years.
During his farewell function, Justice Raja said that transfer is nothing but an incident of service and whenever a transfer order is made, one has to go.
"In service people used to say, whenever anybody is challenging the correctness of a transfer order, generally as a judge we always say a transfer order is nothing but an incident of service. It is one of the conditions of service. You have to go. Similarly, once you join the service you have to retire," he said.
Justice Raja was appointed as Additional Judge of Madras High Court on 31.03.2009. He had earlier served as an Additional Advocate General at the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court from 09.02.2008. Before being elevated as a Judge of the High Court, Justice Raja also served as Standing Counsel for Dr. M.G.R. Medical University for about 10 years in the Supreme Court. He also was a Standing Counsel for E.S.I, before the Principal Bench, Central Administrative Tribunal, New Delhi as well as in Delhi High Court and in Supreme Court. He served as Standing Counsel for Supreme Court Legal Services Society for all Civil and Criminal matters for about six years.
The Supreme Court Collegium had earlier recommended his transfer to the Rajasthan High Court. The collegium first recommended his transfer on November 16, 2022. Though he had sought a reconsideration of the transfer, the collegium affirmed its decision to transfer him on November 24, 2022.
Even after the collegium affirmed its decision to transfer Justice Raja, the Centre did not act upon the same even after five months. This prompted the Collegium to reiterate its recommendation to transfer Justice Raja.
On April 19, 2023, the Collegium, while recommending the transfer of Justice SV Gangapurwala as Chief Justice of Madras High Court reiterated Justice Raja’s transfer to the Rajasthan High Court and stated as under:
The Collegium resolves that the transfer of Justice T Raja as a Judge of the High Court of Rajasthan be effectuated at the earliest. His continuation even as a Judge of the Madras High Court cannot be an impediment to the appointment of Justice S V Gangapurwala as the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court.