Don’t look at all judges transferred from one High Court to another with suspicion: Justice Battu Devanand

It is common for the Bar and others to look at judges transferred from one High Court to another with suspicion but they must keep in mind that not all transfers are made on grounds of corruption, nepotism or vested interest, said Justice Battu Devanand of the Madras High Court on Tuesday following his repatriation to his parent High Court in Andhra Pradesh.

Replying to a farewell address delivered by Advocate General P.S. Raman, Justice Devanand said, sometimes, High Court judges get transferred either for better administration of justice or due to “lack of proper feedback from the concerned.” He, however, stated unjustified transfers certainly cause irreparable harm to the individual concerned besides uprooting his family.

“I am very conscious and mindful of the accepted principle that transfer is an incidence of service… But whenever it is found to be unjustified, the honourable members of the collegium in the Supreme Court, in their wisdom, are reconsidering the same and rendering justice at an appropriate time,” he told a gathering of lawyers, court staff and others who had gathered for the farewell ceremony.

Terming his tenure at the Madras High Court since April 2023 as highly gratifying, the judge thanked the Supreme Court collegium and the Centre for sending him back to his parent High Court. He said, only two sad events took place during his tenure in Chennai — one was the death of Justice Sathya Narayana Prasad in May 2025 and the other was the continued illness of Justice P.D. Audikesavalu for more than a year now.

In the reply to his farewell address, Justice Vivek Kumar Singh, who had now been transferred to the Madhya Pradesh High Court, too said, “it was not a very happy moment” when he was transferred from his parent High Court in Allahabad to the Madras High Court in November 2023. “After giving so much to the Allahabad High Court, I was unaware of the reason as to why I was being transferred,” he said.

However, gradually, with passage of time, he came to terms with it and accepted it as God’s providence. “Now I am going back from Chennai and Madurai with good memories. I will cherish these days. It was a very different kind of experience. I never felt that I was a first timer to this place,” he said and told the gathering that Madhya Pradesh was not new to him since he had pursued his law degree there.