How a Madras high court judge’s transfer has become a case of judicial fairness

That grey areas and judicial appointments or transfers go hand in hand is neither a secret nor a surprise. Yet it did not get this grey in an issue concerning the service of a sitting judge of the Madras high court in recent memory – perhaps never before, and, hopefully, never again. First things first. Justice J Nisha Banu, a well-known and enterprising lawyer who had also once headed the women lawyers’ association at the Madurai bench of the Madras high court, was elevated to the high court bench on Oct 5, 2016. In a career on the bench spanning nine-plus years, Justice Nisha Banu has ascended the judicial ladder and is now number three on the seniority list. She is now a ‘collegium judge’. Having been born in Sept 1966, she has three years of service left in the higher judiciary