In an extraordinary intervention, President A P J Abdul Kalam has written an anguished letter to Chief Justice of India V N Khare over the strike last Monday by Punjab and Haryana High Court judges. Echoing Kalam’s concern, Justice Khare today gave a dressing down to the three seniormost judges of the high court for tarnishing the image of the higher judiciary. In fact, these three judges — Justice G S Singhvi, Justice V K Bali and Justice H S Bedi — had already been summoned by Justice Khare for spearheading the strike on April 19 when 25 out of the 27 high court judges went on mass leave. Chief Justice-designate S Rajendra Babu was also present at the meeting with the three high court judges. This meeting at Justice Khare’s house significantly took place on the eve of the first hearing of a PIL in Supreme Court, challenging the right of the judges to go on strike. In a separate meeting, Justices Khare and Babu are learnt to have discussed the matter with the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice B K Roy. Coming as they did in quick succession, these developments have raised expectations of action being taken against errant judges through the PIL or otherwise. The three high court judges who had been summoned will not be attending court in Chandigarh tomorrow. Speculation was rife in legal circles on the visit to Delhi of two other judges who had participated in the strike, Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice A K Goyal. They were here today though they had not been summoned by the CJI. The ongoing tussle in the high court may be traced to a notice Chief Justice Roy issued to two of his junior colleagues, Justice Viney Mittal and Justice Virender Singh, for taking free membership in a club embroiled in litigation. On April 6, Justice Mittal and Justice Virender Singh wrote back, questioning Justice Roy’s jurisdiction to hold them to account for their membership in the controversial Forest Hill Club near Chandigarh. The situation escalated on April 9 when 21 other judges wrote a joint letter to Justice Roy, accusing him of ‘‘bias and malafides’’ for issuing notices to Justice Mittal and Justice Singh. This drew a sharp response from Chief Justice Roy who in turn accused them of holding a brief for the club owner. Subsequently, on April 19, 25 out of 27 judges struck work in an unprecedented move.
