On Tuesday, the government remained silent on a Supreme Court collegium recommendation to transfer Orissa High Court Chief Justice Dr S Muralidhar to the Madras High Court.
It further went ahead to notify the transfer of Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, to head the Rajasthan High Court.
The apex court collegium had recommended the transfers of both the Chief Justices in one batch in September this year. The Centre has now split the collegium recommendation by notifying Justice Mithal's transfer, however, leaving out Justice Muralidhar.
The uncertainty over Jsutice Muralidhar's transfer has affected the top court collegium's recommendation to elevate Justice Jaswant Singh, who is currently a judge of the Orissa HC, as its Chief Justice, replacing Justice Muralidhar.
In the year 2018, th Centre had unilaterally bifurcated Justice (now retired) Indu Malhotra's file and appointed her as a Supreme Court judge while returning Justice KM Joseph's name to the collegium.
Both Justices Malhotra and Joseph were part of the same batch of judges recommended for elevation to the Supreme Court.
