Gujarat High Court Justice Nikhil Kariel was not on the list of seven High Court judges recommended for transfer by the Supreme Court collegium on Thursday, reported Bar and Bench.

Last week, members of the Gujarat High Court Advocates Association had staged a protest and decided to abstain from work on November 17 after the collegium proposed to transfer Kariel to the Patna High Court.

“Justice Kariel is one of the finest, honest, upright and unbiased Judge whose integrity and honesty is being vouched by the entire Bar in one voice,” the association had said in a resolution.

Lawyers in Telangana and Madras High Courts had also joined the protest against the proposed transfer of Justice Abhishek Reddy of the Telangana High Court to the Patna High Court, and acting Chief Justice T Raja of the Madras High Court to the Rajasthan High Court.

A delegation of Gujarat and Telangana Bar members had met Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud on Monday with their grievances. After the meeting, Chandrachud had assured them that collegium will look into their objections and had asked them to call of their strike.

On Thursday, while the collegium’s list did not include Kariel’s name, it recommended Raja’s and Reddy’s transfer as proposed earlier.

The other judges who are being transferred are:

  • Justice VM Velumani from Madras to Calcutta High Court,
  • Justice Battu Devanand from Andhra Pradesh to Madras High Court,
  • Justice D Ramesh from Andhra Pradesh to Allahabad High Court,
  • Justice Lalitha Kanneganti from Telangana to Karnataka High Court,
  • Justice D Nagarjun from Telangana to Madras High Court.