Kamal Nath Vs PCIT Kolkata-9 & Ors(Calcutta High Court)
Date-10th February 2023
Sub-Whether an order for transfer of a case from one city to another is an administrative order or a quasi judicial order and also whether reasons are required to be recorded for passing such an order?

In this high voltage case related to Ex-Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh which was earlier dismissed on 6th January 2023 by Justice Shekhar Saraf, in an intra court appeal, the matter was argued by none other than Senior Advocate Dr Abhishek Manu Sanghvi and battery of lawyers as well as Solicitor general and Addl Solicitor general and others from this side. It was argued by Dr Sanghvi that the order of transfer was a quasi judicial order and proper reasons should have been recorded before passing the order. Moreover, it was also argued that coordinated investigation could not have been the ground for transfer. However, Justice Sivagnanam brushed aside all the arguments by dealing with each of them and relying on the decision of the Constitution bench of Supreme Court in the case of Pannalal Binjraj and Kashiram Agarwala by holding that the transfer order was purely an administrative order though reasons are required to be recorded for transfer and once reasons are to be recorded, the writ court can be approached to challenge the transfer. However, the challenge has to be limited to the decision making process and not the decision itself. The Court also dealt with the argument that there was an improvement in the show cause notice by tearing those arguments apart.

This decision will be a landmark case in relation to the challenge to transfer u/s 127.

Ramesh Patodia
11-02-2023