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Interestingly, while Justice Uma Nath is all set to hold court on Monday after proceeding on leave for four days, the High Court Bar Association will continue with their boycott. The High Court Bar has made it clear that it is open to a solution if proposed by Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur or the two-judge committee comprising Justice J S Khehar and Justice Jasbir Singh. The proposal will, however, be given a green signal only if it is approved by the Full House.
“We are open to any kind of solution if proposed by the judges. But, the same has to be given a green signal by the Full House of the Bar,” said President of the High Court Bar Association Rupinder S Khosla.
Khosla added that the Bar has decided to apprise the Chief Justice of India and Prime Minister of the “tense situation” in the High Court, if no solution is reached soon.
“Since we don’t see any hope of the resolution being implemented, we will stick to the demand of transfer of Justice Uma Nath Singh from this High Court,” asserted Khosla.
It was on February 20 that the High Court Bar, after a meeting with the two-judge committee, had passed the resolution that Justice Uma Nath Singh will never sit singly and but will be a junior judge in a division bench till the time he remains a judge in this high court.
The dispute had arisen on February 19 when advocate M K Tiwari had lodged a complaint against Justice Uma Nath alleging that the judge had insulted him in the open court.
Plea challenges exclusive passport-related authority to TCS, HC puts ball in Centre’s court
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the Ministry of External Home Affairs, New Delhi, to decide within two months on a legal notice served to Tata Consultancy Services, New Delhi, by the Travel Agents’ Association of Northern India, Sector 17-A, Chandigarh. In its legal notice, the association has challenged the handing over of work of submission of passport applications exclusively to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The petitioners have averred that the government has created a monopoly in favour of Tata Consultancy Services and in effect excluded thousands of recognised travel agents engaged in the business. “Without expressing any views on the merits of its claim, I deem it appropriate to dispose of this petition with a direction to the Ministry of External Affairs to take cognisance of the legal notice served on behalf of the petitioner and decide on the same by passing a reasoned order, in accordance with law, within a period of two months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order,” reads the order passed by Justice Surya Kant of the High Court. The Travel Agents’ Association of Northern India, Sector 17-C, Chandigarh is an association of travel agents that claim to have been recognised to run passport facilitation centers. The petitioner’s grievance is that even when they are statutorily authorised in terms of the provisions of the Passport Rules, 1980, to submit the passport applications, nothing is being disclosed to them as to whether or not they shall be allowed to submit the applications or run the passport facilitation centres.
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