In an astonishing incident, the Maharashtra State Government has alleged that a senior High Court judge is \u2018biased\u2019 against it and sought transfer of its cases from his Court. While the judge declined to recuse himself, the Chief Justice intervened and transferred the cases to another Judge. The move has not gone down well with the Advocates and the Bar Association and they have unanimously condemned the incident<\/p>\n
It is customary from disgruntled litigants to nurture feelings that a particular Judge is \u2018biased<\/em>\u2019 against them and to seek transfer of their cases to some other judge. <\/p>\n However, such conduct is not expected from a responsible litigant such as the State Government. <\/p>\n Yet, in an unprecedented act, Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, the Advocate General of the State of Maharashtra, submitted an application on 24 August 2017 for transfer of cases relating to noise pollution and silent zones from the Court of Hon\u2019ble Justice Abhay Oka. <\/p>\n It was claimed in the application that the learned Judge harbors \u201cserious bias<\/em>\u201d against the State. <\/p>\n The application was made by the learned Advocate General on the instructions of the Home Department of the State Government. <\/p>\n The application stated as follows: <\/p>\n \u201cWith utmost respect and utmost regards towards Hon\u2019ble Shri Justice AS Oka, it is humbly submitted that during the course of hearing the Hon\u2019ble judge has expressed such views which clearly demonstrate that the Hon\u2019ble judge is biased in subject matter of these petitions.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The application gave examples of the alleged bias by citing Justice Oka\u2019s views on the Dahi Handi festival and the recently amended Noise Pollution Rules on declaration of silence zones.<\/p>\n Justice Oka had criticised the government on Dahi Handi and on silence zones.<\/p>\n