The Supreme Court Collegium on Wednesday said that it has changed its recommendation to transfer a judge from one High Court to another after the Union government sought a “reconsideration” of its earlier decision.

In August, the collegium had recommended transferring Justice Atul Sreedharan, a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, to the Chhattisgarh High Court, The Indian Express reported.

On Wednesday, the collegium said that Sreedharan had now been recommended for transfer to the Allahabad High Court.

Sreedharan would have been the second most senior judge in the Chhattisgarh High Court if he had been transferred there, the newspaper reported. He will now be seventh in seniority in the Allahabad High Court.

“The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on 14th October, 2025, on reconsideration sought by the government, resolved to recommend that Mr Justice Atul Sreedharan…be transferred to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad instead of the High Court of Chhattisgarh,” the statement read.

The collegium has reconsidered its decisions on transferring judges in the past as well. However, it usually does not specify that a reconsideration was sought by the Union government.

Under the collegium system, the five most senior judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, decide on the appointment and transfer of judges to the top court and High Courts.

Who is Justice Atul Sreedharan?

Sreedharan was appointed a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2016.

In 2023, he was transferred from the Madhya Pradesh High Court to the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, Bar and Bench reported. He was transferred back to the Madhya Pradesh High Court in March.

During his tenure at the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, Sreedharan had quashed several cases filed under the Public Safety Act, The Indian Express reported.

The Public Safety Act is a preventive detention law that allows persons to be taken into custody to prevent them from acting against “the security of the state or the maintenance of the public order” in the Union Territory.

At the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Sreedharan was part of a division bench that ordered the filing of a first information report in May against state minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vijay Shah for remarks purportedly targeting Colonel Sofia Qureshi.

Shah had said that those who had “widowed the daughters of India” were taught a lesson by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “by sending the sister from their own community”. He repeated the remark immediately after saying it the first time.

While he did not name anyone, Opposition parties alleged that the minister was alluding to Qureshi, who was one of the Ministry of External Affairs’ spokespersons during media briefings on Operation Sindoor.

The High Court bench, too, had observed that Shah’s remarks referred to “none other but” Qureshi.

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