Karnataka HC moves Supreme Court against its judge Shylendra Kumar

In an unusual action, Karnataka high court today approached the Supreme Court complaining against its own judge, justice DV Shylendra Kumar, accusing him of "berating" chief justice PD Dinakaran by using "intemperate" language.

The petition has also sought quashing of some orders passed by a bench headed by justice Shylendra Kumar, who had in the past attacked justice Dinakaran in his blogs, in which he has questioned administrative decisions of justice Dinakaran relating to the roaster of the Benches and work allocation for judges in the principal and circuit benches.

The petition filed through the registrar general of the high court was mentioned before a vacation bench comprising justices Deepak Verma and KS Radhakrishnan, who decided to hear it tomorrow.

Justice Dinakaran, whose transfer to another high court has been recommended by the Supreme Court collegium in the wake of corruption and land grab charges against him, has been the target of justice Shylendra Kumar ever since.

The high court alleged that the bench headed by justice Shylendra Kumar was using "intemperate" language against the chief justice Dinakaran for publicity and even "orally threatened to initiate contempt proceedings" against the registry if it would not comply with its orders.

Though the practice of oral mentioning of the petition has been done away after justice SH Kapadia took over as chief justice of India, the bench decided to consider high court's petition after an oral mention as a special case.

However, when senior advocate Udaya Hola, mentioned the high court's petition, the Bench said some defects have been pointed out by the apex court registry which have to be rectified before it can be listed.

After taking the corrective measures, Hola, former advocate general of Karnataka mentioned the petition at the end of the day's proceedings before the Bench, which said it will go through the files and hear the matter tomorrow.

The senior advocate said despite knowing that the four orders of the bench headed by justice Shylendra Kumar have been challenged in the apex court, the judge has called for the files from the registrar of the high court and is hearing them in the open court today.

In the petition filed by the high court, it has been alleged that while hearing a tax/customs matter, a division bench of justices Shylendra Kumar and N Ananda, questioned the administrative decisions taken by chief justice Dinakaran and sought information from the registrar general about the roaster of the judges and allocation of work for judges of the principal and circuit benches.

The high court has sought quashing of four orders passed on consecutive hearings on June 4, 9, 10 and 11 respectively.

The bench has questioned the decision of chief justice not listing the tax matter on a particular date before the circuit bench at Dharwar where justice Shylendra Kumar was presiding over it. The chief justice had taken a decision that the matter would be heard later when they return to the principal bench.

In the petition, the high court said, "The division bench has thereafter been summoning records, orders and notifications issued by the chief justice of Karnataka high court with a view to sit in appeal over the same".

"That apart, they have been berating the chief justice in the open court in intemperate language with a view to ensure that the same is printed in the news media," it said.

"This has gone on for four continuous days and presently the matter is directed to be listed today (June 14) with a further direction to produce more documents and records in order to again sit in appeal over the orders of chief justice relating to the assignment of roasters, constitution of benches, which is within the sole domain of chief justice, with a view to further denigrate him questioning his authority," the petition said.

Justice Shylendra Kumar has openly been criticising the continuance of justice Dinakaran as the chief justice of the high court since allegations of corruption were levelled against him after the apex court collegium had recommended his elevation as a judge of the Supreme Court.

Later, the collegium had dropped his name and justice Dinakaran had decided not to hold the court. He is only performing administrative functions.