NEW DELHI: Miffed by the Supreme Court collegium's decision to transfer her to Meghalaya high court from the historic Madras HC, chief justice VK Tahilramani on Friday tendered her resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind . She sent a copy of the resignation letter to CJI Ranjan Gogoi .

Justice Tahilramani was appointed as a judge of Bombay HC on June 26, 2001, at the age of 43. She became chief justice of Madras HC on August 12, 2018. Justices Tahilramani and Gita Mittal were the only women chief justices in the male dominated 25 HCs. Justice Tahilramani was to retire on October 2, 2020, which means she foregoes more than a year of chief justiceship, and a possible elevation to the SC by tendering her resignation.

The trigger for Justice Tahilramani's resignation was the August 28 decision of the SC collegium headed by CJI Gogoi and comprising Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and RF Nariman proposing the transfer of Meghalaya HC CJ Justice AK Mittal to Madras HC. The same day, the collegium decided to transfer Justice Tahilramani to Meghalaya HC.

Meghalaya HC has a sanctioned strength of four judges while Madras HC has a sanctioned strength of 75 judges.

In her one-paragraph resignation letter, Justice Tahilramani requested the President to relieve her immediately. The President has forwarded the letter to the government for further action.

"In the interest of better administration of justice" was the reason given by the collegium when it transferred Justice Tahilramani to Meghalaya HC, which was established in March 2013. Madras HC, on the other hand, is one of the three oldest HCs and was established on June 26, 1862.

When the collegium sought her response to the proposal to transfer to Meghalaya HC, Justice Tahilramani on September 2 requested reconsideration and expressed unwillingness/difficulty in going to the north-eastern state's nascent HC.

The collegium considered her representation on September 3 and reiterated its decision to transfer her to Meghalaya HC. "The collegium has carefully gone through the aforesaid representation and taken into consideration all relevant factors. On reconsideration, the collegium is of the considered view that it is not possible to accede to her request. The collegium, accordingly, reiterates its recommendation dated August 28 for transfer of Justice VK Tahilramani to Meghalaya HC," it said.

With Justice Tahilramani's resignation, Justice Mittal will be the lone chief justice in a male-dominated higher judiciary. Justice Mittal, whose parent HC is Delhi, has been heading Jammu and Kashmir HC since August 11, 2018, and is scheduled to retire on December 8, 2020.

