Chandigarh
The Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association is up in arms against Justice Uma Nath Singh, following a complaint filed by an advocate alleging he was “insulted in open court” by the judge. The issue sparked off last month when Advocate M K Tiwari and Justice Uma Nath Singh were involved in a verbal altercation. The Bar, on Thursday, passed a resolution in an emergent Full House, asking for the transfer of Justice Uma Nath. The Bar has also decided to boycott his court until the transfer demand is not met. It all began on January 20 when a case pertaining to non-payment of wages to a UT employee came up for hearing in the court of Justice Uma Nath Singh. The division bench headed by Justice Singh took strong note of the “objectionable” language used by Advocate Tiwari against few High Court Judges in the petition filed by him. The Judge warned Tiwari that he was committing contempt of court by using such objectionable language against Judges and had posted the hearing for today.
Feeling ‘insulted’ after the remarks made by the judge, Advocate Tiwari made a written a complaint to the President of the Bar Rupinder S Khosla on February 18. Khosla, thereafter, brought the issue to the notice of Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur. “When the case came up for hearing, the judge asked me if I had lodged a complaint. Irked, he warned of issuing contempt notices to me and the president of the Bar for interfering with judicial functioning. He also said that the order will be faxed to the Chief Justice of India by noon,” alleged Advocate M K Tiwari on Thursday.
