Justice Pandey of Allahabad HC Lucknow bench denied farewell on retirement

Justice Rang Nath Pandey of the Allahabad High Court was Thursday denied an official farewell on his retirement, days after he reportedly wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on "deficiencies" in the collegium system of appointing judges. Justice Pandey retired Tuesday from the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.

A full-court farewell reference by the Lucknow bench of the court, held traditionally for high court judges on their retirement, was scheduled to take place Thursday. But the July 1 notice issued for the farewell reference was withdrawn by the senior registrar of the Lucknow bench of the high court Thursday.

The registrar attributed the withdrawal of the notice to "unforeseen circumstances". "Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the notice dated July 1, 2019, regarding Full Court reference (farewell) is hereby withdrawn," said another notice on Thursday, signed by Senior Registrar Manvendra Singh of the high court's Lucknow bench.

It has been the high court practice to extend farewell reference to retiring judges and the high court administration had on July 1 issued an official notice for according the farewell reference. The notice about the farewell was also forwarded amongst others to Lucknow-based Oudh Bar Association (OBA) and its president and general secretary, besides the state government's advocate general, the Lucknow-based additional solicitor general of India and other law officers.

The Oudh Bar Association, however, welcomed Justice Pandey in the Bar and accorded him the farewell. On the occasion, Justice Pandey condemned the present process of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary.

The farewell function was attended by OBA president A M Tripathi, senior vice president S P Singh, joint secretaries Rishabh Tripathi and Ashok Sahu and Assistant Solicitor General S P Pandey amongst others.