Judge from Chhattisgarh HC was sent to Madras HC and then diverted to Patna HC

NEW DELHI: Following the HC judge’s representation, the Supreme Court Collegium, chaired by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, decided to reverse its March 15 proposal to transfer Justice Arvind Singh Chandel of the Chhattisgarh High Court to the Madras High Court. Instead, on Wednesday, it recommended to the Union government that Chandel be transferred to the Patna High Court.

The five-member collegium, which also included Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B. R. Gavai, Surya Kant, and Aniruddha Bose, decided to transfer him to the Patna High Court rather than the Madras High Court. They did this after turning down Justice Chandel’s request to have his transfer reconsidered or to post him in any of the high courts in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Allahabad, Punjab, or Haryana.

In its decision, the Collegium said that it had “carefully gone through the request made by justice Arvind Singh Chandel” after engaging SC justices who were knowledgeable with Chhattisgarh High Court issues and seeking the chief justice of Patna High Court’s viewpoint. We believe that Justice Arvind Singh Chandel’s request to be transferred to any of the five high courts mentioned above or to reevaluate the transfer proposal cannot be granted.”
“Appreciating his difficulty, the Collegium partially accedes to his request and resolves to recommend that Mr. Justice Arvind Singh Chandel be transferred to the High Court of Judicature at Patna instead of the Madras High Court as proposed by the Collegium on March 15,” the decision said.
On November 17, 2021, the ED filed a challenge in the Supreme Court regarding the pre-arrest bail granted to top state officials implicated in the Chhattisgarh Nagrik Apurti Nigam (NAN) scam. The ED described the bail as “tainted” and claimed that the case against the two bureaucrats had been weakened by the then chief minister, members of the SIT, and the state’s top law officer at the time.
In order to demonstrate to the SC bench led by then Chief Justice N V Ramana the alleged influence that the accused, working with the law enforcement officer, allegedly exerted to ‘obtain’ the anticipatory bail order in a case involving the alleged embezzlement of crores of rupees in the purchase and transportation of food grains intended for the underprivileged and marginalised sections of society, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta read out WhatsApp conversations between the accused and influentia
On October 18, 2022, the ED said that 72 witnesses had become hostile since the two accused were granted anticipatory release and that key state officials were attempting to overturn the case. It had turned in a sealed envelope containing the accused’s WhatsApp chats, which allegedly revealed the investigating officers’ collaboration. The claim was denied by the Chhattisgarh government, which described the ED case as an effort to topple the state’s Congress administration.