SC admits it changed decision on judge transfer after Govt ‘sought’ it

New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, revealed on Wednesday that it had changed its recommendation to transfer Justice Atul Sreedharan to Chhattisgarh High Court after the government ‘sought reconsideration’.

The admission comes more than a month after the Collegium had recommended the transfer of Justice Sreedharan to Chhattisgarh High Court on August 25, according to The Indian Express.

Subsequently Justice Sreedharan has been recommended to be transferred to the Allahabad High Court.

‘The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on 14th October, 2025, on reconsideration sought by the Government, resolved to recommend that Mr. Justice Atul Sreedharan, Judge, High Court of Madhya Pradesh, be transferred to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad instead of the High Court of Chhattisgarh,’ read a statement by the Collegium.

There were instances, according to the report, of the Collegium previously reconsidering its decisions to transfer judges; however it is for the first time a statement claims that the government sought the reconsideration of transfer.

Justice Sreedharan became a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2016.

As a lawyer, he worked with senior advocate Gopal Subramanium for five years before he started practicing in Indore.

However, he sought transfer out of Madhya Pradesh in 2023 pointing out that his daughter was to begin practicing in Indore.

Thus he came to work in the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court and, before moving back to Madhya Pradesh in 2025.

In Srinagar he quashed several cases under the Public Safety Act putting in greater judicial scrutiny to preventive detention cases.

In the MP High Court he was part of a division bench that took suo motu cognisance of state minister Vijay Shah’s alleged inflammatory remarks against Indian Army officer Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, ensuring FIR was registered.