'Calcutta HC can't be dumping ground': Lawyers strike over Delhi judge shift | India News – The Times of India

KOLKATA: Lawyers of Calcutta HC stayed away from the court from 10 am to 3.30 pm on Tuesday in protest of SC collegium’s recommendation last week to transfer Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma from Delhi HC to Calcutta HC.
Even as the lawyers were protesting, the Centre notified Justice Sharma’s transfer, prompting the three lawyers’ bodies of the HC – Calcutta HC Bar Association, Bar Library Club and Incorporated Law Society – to write to Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam that their members would boycott the swearing-in ceremony of Justice Sharma. The lawyers also threatened to stay away from Justice Sharma’s court if he was allocated cases.
Protesting the move to transfer Justice Sharma, the three lawyers’ bodies had written to Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna last Saturday that Calcutta HC cannot be a ‘dumping ground’ for judges with ‘questionable image or short stints’, just days after lawyers of Allahabad HC had protested the transfer of Justice Yashwant Varma using the same term. Justice Varma is currently embroiled in a cash-recovery row and lawyers of Allahabad HC have been protesting his transfer from Delhi HC saying their HC can’t be used as a ‘dumping ground’.
With Calcutta HC lawyers staying away, very few cases were heard during the day as judges made it clear they would not hear matters unless both sides were present during the hearing.
Three lawyers’ bodies wrote to CJI, appending whistleblower emails from Oct 28 and Nov 4, 2024, alleging Justice Sharma retained certain civil disputes as “part heard” despite a roster change. They urged the additional solicitor general and advocate general to boycott his swearing-in.