Supreme Court withdraws order removing Allahabad HC Judge from criminal roster

The Supreme Court has deleted two paragraphs from its August 4 order that had directed the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court to remove Justice Prashant Kumar from the criminal roster until his retirement, over his remarks suggesting criminal proceedings as an alternative in money recovery disputes. This effectively withdraws the directive barring him from handling criminal cases.

A group of Allahabad High Court judges had written to Chief Justice Arun Bhansali, urging him to convene a full court meeting in response to the Supreme Court’s recent order directing the removal of Justice Prashant Kumar from the criminal roster.

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Supreme Court has deleted two paragraphs from it’s August 4 order in which it had directed the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court to remove Allahabad HC judge Justice Prashant Kumar from the Criminal Roster until his retirement (meaning the High Court judge will not be… pic.x.com/5zPSGmElGU

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— ANI (@ANI) August 8, 2025

The letter, penned by Justice Arindam Sinha and signed by seven judges, expressed deep concern over the apex court’s August 4, 2025 order.

In that order, a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, while hearing a plea by M/s Shikhar Chemicals, made sharp observations against Justice Kumar’s judicial reasoning. The company had sought to quash criminal proceedings arising from a commercial dispute, which the High Court had earlier refused to do. Justice Kumar had ruled that forcing the complainant to pursue only civil remedies would be “very unreasonable” and that criminal proceedings could be used to recover dues.

The Supreme Court overturned this view, calling it “untenable” and expressing shock at the High Court’s reasoning. It ordered the matter to be reheard by a different judge and directed that Justice Kumar be removed from criminal case assignments and placed on a division bench with a senior judge until his retirement.