The case concerning non-payment of wages to a UT employee, which had sparked off a verbal altercation between Justice Uma Nath Singh and advocate M K Tiwari, was transferred to another Bench by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday.

Passing the orders, the Division Bench comprising Justice Uma Nath and Justice A N Jindal observed: “We are transferring the case to another Bench but will make certain observations inside the chamber.”

Meanwhile, the General House Meeting of the High Court Bar Association witnessed an outburst of anger by several advocates. After the meet, which lasted for around one-and-a-half hour, the Bar passed a resolution that it will continue with the boycott of the judge’s court but leave the resolution of the dispute to Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur. The Bar also made it clear that the final decision will be put before the General House for approval.

President of the Bar Association, Rupinder S Khosla, began the meet by informing the General House about the meeting between the executive committee and Justice Uma Nath two days ago. “I told the judge that honour is of the utmost importance for an individual and that we won’t tolerate any judge misbehaving with a member of the Bar. We also said that if he is uncomfortable staying in the High Court, he should seek his transfer.” Khosla said the judge assured him that such conduct will not be repeated. “But such things carry no weight,” he added.

The executive proposed to the General House that the boycott of the judge’s court be kept in abeyance till the Chief Justice takes a decision on the issue. “If nothing materialises, we can restart the boycott,” the executive said.

But most lawyers were against the proposal. Advocate H S Gill said: “There is no force binding on us to call judges honourable when they misbehave. The Chief Justice of India should be requested to impeach Justice Nath.”

Advocate Anupam Gupta said: “I regret to say that it appears impossible that this gentleman will change. History has a bad habit of repeating itself in the case of Justice Uma Nath Singh.” Advocate Raj Kumar Gupta said: “Every member of this Bar is a victim of the judge’s misconduct.”

Echoing his views, advocate R S Bains said: “Our system works on faith. We begin our arguments by calling a judge as ‘my lord’. But this doesn’t mean that the judge actually starts believing that he is the Almighty and misbehaves with us. Why has no action been taken against Justice Uma Nath till date? At least, work should have been withdrawn from his court.”

Mincing no words, advocate H S Baath stated: “This judge is fully secular. He treats every advocate equally. For him, there is no difference between a senior or a young lawyer, as all of us are equally humiliated in his court”.