Delhi HC judge, who decriminalised gay sex, to be transferred

New Delhi, Feb 19 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended transfer of Delhi High Court's Justice S. Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The five-judge Collegium is headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and comprises of four senior judges -- Justices N.V. Ramana, Arun Mishra, R.F. Nariman and R Banumathi.

The Collegium, in a meeting held on February 12, also recommended the transfer of Justice Ranjit V More of the Bombay High Court to the Meghalaya High Court, and Justice Ravi Vijayakumar Malimath of the Karnataka High Court to the Uttarakhand High Court.

Justice Muralidhar is the third seniormost judge at the Delhi High Court.

Starting his law practice in Chennai in September 1984, he shifted to Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court in 1987.

Justice Muralidhar was part of the High Court bench, which decriminalised homosexuality first time in 2009 Naz Foundation case. He was also on the bench which convicted members of the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Armed Constabulary in the Hashimpura massacre case and also senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Justice Muralidhar, who got rid of the convention of addressing judges as "Lordship", was also part of the full-bench in 2010 that ruled in favour of disclosing how many Supreme Court judges had declared their assets in RTI.

His pro bono work as a lawyer included the cases of the victims of the Bhopal Gas Disaster and people displaced by the dams on the Narmada.

Justice More is also third seniormost judge of the Bombay High Court. He did his LLM from Mumbai University, and he was elevated as an Additional Judge of the High Court on September 8, 2006.

Justice Malimath is presently the second seniormost judge of the Karnataka High Court. He began legal practice as an advocate at Karnataka High Court in 1987.

Source: IANS