At least 12 High Court judges have resigned since 2017

At least 12 High Court judges have resigned since 2017, with the Bombay High Court witnessing the maximum of judges demitting office before their retirement in this period..The number goes up to 16, if resignations of additional judges are taken into account..While many such resignations were voluntary and on personal grounds, some of them were under circumstances relating to their service. These include transfer to other High Courts or denial of elevation as Chief Justice. Following are the judges who have resigned from their positions in the past:Justice Jayant Patel (2017); Justice Nakka Balayogi (2018);Justice V Tahilramani (2019);Justice Anant Bijay Singh (2020);Justice SC Dharmadhikari (2020);Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal (2020);Justice Sunil Kumar Awasthi (2021);Justice Sharad Kumar Gupta (2021); Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu (2021);Justice Ajay Tewari (2022); Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia (2022);Justice Rohit B Deo (2023)..The last person to put in his papers, Justice Rohit Deo declared his resignation in open court on Friday morning. He said that he was stepping down owing to 'personal reasons.'However, there are speculations that he resigned due to an impending transfer and because he did not want to leave his parent High Court..Justice Jayant Patel (September 2017).Justice Patel was sworn in as an additional judge of the Gujarat High Court in December 2001 and made permanent in August 2004. Just before his transfer, he was appointed as Acting Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on August 13, 2015. On February 13, 2016, he was transferred to the Karnataka High Court.The judge tendered his resignation in September 2017, after he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court instead of being appointed as the Acting Chief Justice or the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, where he was the second senior-most puisne judge. At Allahabad, he would have been the third senior-most judge, if transferred. However, he chose to step down from the post..Justice Nakka Balayogi (resigned but later withdrew his resignation in December 2018).In December 2018, Justice Nakka Balayogi of the then High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad resigned from service, a year after being made a permanent judge. His resignation was notified by the Central government, but before it could be made effective, the judge withdrew the same. The President later accepted his request for withdrawal of resignation.Consequently, Justice Balayogi continued in office as a judge till he retired in January 2019..Justice V Tahilramani (September 2019).Justice Tahilramani was elevated as a judge of the Bombay High Court in 2001 and served there as Acting Chief Justice.In August 2018, she was transferred to the Madras High Court as Chief Justice.However, within 11 months of her tenure at the Madras High Court, the Supreme Court Collegium under then Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi recommended her transfer to the Meghalaya High Court, which has a sanctioned strength of three judges, including the Chief Justice.Her appeal to the Collegium to reconsider its decision fell on deaf ears, prompting her to tender her resignation. The abrupt proposal to transfer Chief Justice Tahilramani to the Meghalaya High Court had raised eyebrows, given her all-India seniority as a puisne judge.It was later revealed that CJI Gogoi had urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take action on an Intelligence Bureau (IB) report that highlighted irregulariteis associated with Justice Tahilramani. These were related to the purchase of two flats in Chennai, the decision to dissolve a special High Court bench dealing with idol theft cases involving influential politicians and her alleged close ties with a Tamil Nadu Minister.However, the CBI exonerated her after its probe did not disclose the commission of any cognizable offence.In a recent interview with Bar & Bench, former Madras High Court judge Justice PN Prakash recounted how CJI Gogoi allowed a CBI inquiry against her after her resignation."Even now, after the CBI has exonerated her, she remains stoically silent," Justice Prakash said..Justice Anant Bijay Singh (January 2020).Justice Anant Bijay Singh tendered his resignation from his post as a judge of the Jharkhand High Court in January 2020. He was appointed as an additional judge in April 2016 and later made permanent in January 2018.Within a week of his resignation, Justice Singh was appointed as a judicial member of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT)..Justice SC Dharmadhikari (February 2020).Another Bombay High Court judge, Justice SC Dharmadhikari declared his decision to resign in open court on February 14, 2020.At the time of his resignation, Justice Dharmadhikari was serving as the second senior-most judge of the HIgh Court. He was proposed to be elevated as Chief Justice of some other High Court, but was not keen to leave his parent High Court..Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal (May 2020).In May 2020, Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal stepped down as Delhi High Court judge a month before her actual date of retirement. Soon after her resignation, she was appointed President of the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.Prior to her elevation to the High Court in December 2014, Justice Sehgal had worked as the Registrar General of the High Court. She was made a permanent judge in June 2016..Justice Sunil Kumar Awasthi (January 2021).Justice Sunil Kumar Awasthi of the Madhya Pradesh High Court resigned from office with effect from January 2, 2021.He served in various capacities as a judicial officer in the State before being elevated to High Court as an additional judge in 2016. He was made permanent in March 2018..Justice Sharad Kumar Gupta (March 2021).Justice Sharad Kumar Gupta of the Chhattisgarh High Court resigned from office with effect from March 31, 2021, just a few days before his actual date of retirement.Interestingly, Justice Gupta had earlier communicated his decision to retire from his post, stating that he had given his consent for an 'undisclosed assignment' offered to him by the then ruling Congress-led government in the State.Justice Gupta served as a High Court judge from June 2017..Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu (August 2021).Bombay High Court judge, Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu tendered his resignation in August 2021 citing 'purely personal reasons.'He was first appointed judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court and also served as judge of the Kerala High Court before he was transferred to the Bombay High Court in March 2019.Within a few months of his resignation, the former judge returned to law practice in the Supreme Court..Justice Ajay Tewari (March 2022).Justice Ajay Tewari, then the Punjab & Haryana High Court's second senior-most judge, resigned from office in March 2022. He was due to retire on April 6, 2022.Justice Tewari was second in the line after Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha.Justice Tewari practiced as lawyer for 26 years before being elevated as a judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court in July 2008..Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia (November 2022).Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia of the Himachal Pradesh High Court tendered his resignation in November 2022.Prior to his elevation as an additional judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in April 2016, he had been serving in the lower judiciary of the State since January 2003. He also served as Registrar General of the High Court just before his elevation..Justice Rohit B Deo.The latest to the list is Justice Rohit B Deo, who announced his retirement in open court on August 4.Justice Deo was elevated to the High Court bench in 2017. He was the State's Advocate General before his appointment as a judge, and also served as Additional Solicitor General at the Nagpur Bench of the High Court.He was due to retire from the office of High Court judge on December 4, 2025..Some additional Judges of Bombay High Court who resigned.The Bombay High Court's Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, who authored a series of controversial judgments, including the infamous 'skin to skin' judgment, resigned in February 2022. The Supreme Court Collegium did not recommend her appointment as a permanent judge or extend her term as an additional judge. Prior to her elevation to the High Court, Justice Ganediwala had served in the district judiciary for over 11 years.Other additional judges who have resigned from their office include Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, Anil Sakhre and Girish Godbole.