Tahilramani episode echoes 1981 resignation
M.M. Ismail quit in similar situation
10/09/2019, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI
M.M. Ismail quit in similar situation
10/09/2019, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI
V. K. Tahilramani
Madras High Court Chief Justice V. K. Tahilramani’s decision to resign in the face of a Supreme Court Collegium recommendation to transfer her to the Meghalaya High Court finds a distant echo with the choice made by another Madras High Court Chief Justice, nearly 40 years ago, to “sacrifice” his career and bow out with a sense of self-respect.
On January 19, 1981, the President issued an order to transfer then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, M.M. Ismail, to the Kerala High Court.
Lawyers, including advocate Lily Thomas, rushed to court against the transfer. The petitions, among several others, came up before a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court for hearing. This judges transfer case came to be famously known as the “First Judges’ Case” after it was reconsidered in the “Second Judges Case”, which introduced the collegium system.
Though he was made a respondent in Ms. Thomas’s petition, Justice Ismail filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court conveying his decision not to question the legality or validity of the transfer. But Justice Ismail did not go unnoticed by the Supreme Court judges.
“I cannot help commending the conduct of Justice Ismail, who actually resigned and chose to quit his office instead of pursuing the matter further in the larger interest of the purity of administration of justice. The life of a judge is that of a hermit and he must inculcate a spirit of self-sacrifice and should take his profession in this holy spirit,” Justice S.M. Fazal Ali wrote in his judgment in the Judges Transfer Case.
Justice R.S. Pathak reproduced extracts from the affidavit filed by Justice Ismail, saying he had no interest in people advocating his case.
“...I decided not to proceed to Kerala to take charge as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala; not to challenge the legality or the validity of the order of the President so transferring me in any Court of Law; and (3) to proceed on leave preparatory to premature retirement by resigning my office… I have nothing to submit to this Honourable Court in this writ petition and I do not want anyone to litigate for or against me,” he wrote to the Supreme Court Bench.
Madras High Court Chief Justice V. K. Tahilramani’s decision to resign in the face of a Supreme Court Collegium recommendation to transfer her to the Meghalaya High Court finds a distant echo with the choice made by another Madras High Court Chief Justice, nearly 40 years ago, to “sacrifice” his career and bow out with a sense of self-respect.
On January 19, 1981, the President issued an order to transfer then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, M.M. Ismail, to the Kerala High Court.
Lawyers, including advocate Lily Thomas, rushed to court against the transfer. The petitions, among several others, came up before a seven-judge Bench of the Supreme Court for hearing. This judges transfer case came to be famously known as the “First Judges’ Case” after it was reconsidered in the “Second Judges Case”, which introduced the collegium system.
Though he was made a respondent in Ms. Thomas’s petition, Justice Ismail filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court conveying his decision not to question the legality or validity of the transfer. But Justice Ismail did not go unnoticed by the Supreme Court judges.
“I cannot help commending the conduct of Justice Ismail, who actually resigned and chose to quit his office instead of pursuing the matter further in the larger interest of the purity of administration of justice. The life of a judge is that of a hermit and he must inculcate a spirit of self-sacrifice and should take his profession in this holy spirit,” Justice S.M. Fazal Ali wrote in his judgment in the Judges Transfer Case.
Justice R.S. Pathak reproduced extracts from the affidavit filed by Justice Ismail, saying he had no interest in people advocating his case.
“...I decided not to proceed to Kerala to take charge as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Kerala; not to challenge the legality or the validity of the order of the President so transferring me in any Court of Law; and (3) to proceed on leave preparatory to premature retirement by resigning my office… I have nothing to submit to this Honourable Court in this writ petition and I do not want anyone to litigate for or against me,” he wrote to the Supreme Court Bench.
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