Unfavourable order no ground to transfer case to another judge over bias: HC

New Delhi: Unfavourable order by a judge cannot be a ground to seek transfer of a case on account of any bias, the Delhi High Court has held.

Justice Saurabh Banerjee said that in case of an unfavourable order, it is open to the litigant to take recourse to the options available in law.

The order was passed by Justice Banerjee on a petition by a woman who sought the transfer of her matrimonial case from one mahila court to another.

In an order passed on April 7, Justice Banerjee observed that the principal and district judge concerned rejected the petitioner’s plea to transfer her case to another judge by passing a well-reasoned order.

The court noted that the principal judge’s order held that the mere discharge of her husband and mother-in-law in the criminal case against them over alleged cruelty under the Indian Penal Code could not form any basis to assume bias and the onus to substantiate the allegations was on the petitioner.

“Even otherwise, since the said order(s) were passed by a Court of law in discharge of the duties, merely because it was not a favourable order in favour of the petitioner does/ cannot involve an element of bias, all the more whence it is always open for the petitioner to take recourse to the appropriate remedies as available to her in accordance with law,” the court said.

Before the high court, the petitioner assailed the order of the principal and district judge refusing to transfer her case to another judge.

The court dismissed the petition and said the petitioner was again trying to re-agitate the very same issues which had been negated by a well-reasoned speaking impugned order by the Principal Judge.