Delhi High Court adjourns most cases after lawyers abstain from work to protest transfer of Justice Gaurang Kanth

The Delhi High Court had to adjourn most of the cases listed before it on Monday, given that lawyers were protesting against the transfer of Justice Gaurang Kanth to the Calcutta High Court..The Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) had opposed the recently notified transfer of Justice Kanth from Delhi to the Calcutta High Court. .The transfer was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on July 12 and was notified by the Central government on July 15. The DHCBA said that the transfer will affect the dispensation of justice in the Delhi High Court and, therefore, requested its members to abstain from work. .The result of DHCBA's call was visible today, as most of the courtrooms, which are otherwise packed on a Monday, were nearly empty. Proxy counsel appeared before the benches and sought adjournments in most cases. The repeated requests for adjournment without any reason prompted the Division Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sanjeev Narula to question the proxy counsel on why adjournments were being sought."We can’t adjourn cases like this...You can’t appear in every case like this. If someone is not well, fine we will adjourn it. But none of you are giving a ground for adjournment," the Bench remarked. The Bench, however, did hear certain cases in which lawyers appeared and passed orders in those matters..Meanwhile, Justice Siddharth Mridul (who used to share a bench with Justice Gaurang Kanth) sat with Justice Anish Dayal today. Justice Mridul said that that since the counsel were not appearing, adjournments will be given in matters. The judge then rose and asked his staff to inform him if the counsel appearing in any case want to argue. "We would like to hear the matters where parties are there...Call us if the counsel are there," the judge remarked. .A similar situation was witnessed before most of the other benches as well.