Justice Atul Sreedharan on Tuesday took oath as a judge of the Allahabad High Court.The oath of office and secrecy to Justice Sreedharan was administered by Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Arun Bhansali.
The Centre requested the Collegium not to transfer Justice Sreedharan to the Chhattisgarh High Court. The Collegium then recommended his name for judgeship at the Allahabad High Court.
Justice Sreedharan was transferred from the Madhya Pradesh High Court on October 18. The Supreme Court Collegium had earlier recommended his transfer to the Chhattisgarh High Court. The decision was, however, taken back following government intervention.
A few months ago, the judge was repatriated to his parent High Court in Madhya Pradesh from the Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court.
Justice Sreedharan began his legal career in the chamber of Senior Advocate Gopal Subramanium in 1992 at Delhi. He assisted the Senior Advocate in several civil and criminal matters before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and trial courts till 1997.
He practised independently in Delhi from 1997 to 2000 before shifting to Indore in 2001, where he continued independent practice.
Justice Sreedharan also served as a Panel Advocate and Government Advocate for the State of Madhya Pradesh before the Indore Bench of the High Court.
He was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on April 7, 2016, and made a permanent judge on March 17, 2018.
Justice Sreedharan was part of the High Court Collegium in Madhya Pradesh and would have been in a similar position at the Chhattisgarh High Court. However, in Allahabad, he will be at number seven in seniority.
In April 2023, he was transferred from Madhya Pradesh to Jammu and Kashmir. The judge had sought the transfer on the grounds of his daughter entering the law practice in Madhya Pradesh. He was transferred back to Madhya Pradesh in March this year.
Speaking at a farewell reference in Jabalpur, Justice Sreedharan had recently said that transfers are an incident of service, adding that he was excited and looking forward to serving at the Allahabad High Court, the largest High Court in the country.
As per Justice Sreedharan, the only thing permanent in the universe was impermanence.
Quoting Urdu poet Rahat Indori, he said, ‘Jo aaj sahib-e-masnad hai kal nahi honge (those who are sitting on the throne today will not be there tomorrow), kiraaye daar hain zaati makaan thodi hai’ (they are renters, it is not their house).”