Justice Rajesh Bindal was born on 16 April, 1961 in Haryana, India. He passed his matriculation from S.A Jain School, continued to go to college there only. He did his B.Com degree from Punjab University, Chandigarh. He has completed his LLB degree from Kurukshetra University in 1985.He then started practicing at High Court of Punjab and Haryana the same year. He then became a Judge of High Court of Punjab and Haryana on 22 March, 2006. He was later transferred to Jammu & Kashmir High Court and then to Calcutta High Court where he served as the acting Chief Justice before his transfer to Allahabad. He was a first generation lawyer who pushed through all difficulties with hard work and became Chief Justice of High Court.
Collegium selected a number of judges on the basis of being active members of state level committees and representing the state to be elevated to the position of Judge of High Court. He was associated with High Court of Punjab and Haryana and also represented various committees for 20 years before is elevation to being a Judge of Punjab & Haryana High Court.
On 25 June, Ashok Kumar Deb, the chairman of the Bar Council of West Bengal sent a letter to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, seeking the removal of acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Rajesh Bindal.
Hon’ble Justice Rajesh Bindal has time and again taken needed decisions to uphold the rule of law.The Calcutta High Court quashed the allotment of a plot by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Develelopement Corporation (HIDCO) to former cricketer and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly for the purpose of establishing an educational institution (Humanity, Salt Lake & Anr v. State of West Bengal. Sourav Ganguly did not follow the procedure in land allotment done in February 2013, the Calcutta High Court held that no one is exclusive.
This land was allotted by the Trinamool Congress led Government to him for developing a school. The division bench led by acting by Hon’able Justice Rajesh Bindal stated the facts of the case and clearly established that the allotment done in Februaray 2013 was in violation of the State’s land allotment policy. Neither the bonafides of the allottee were examined properly as per rule nor due process was followed by the State Cabinet or by the board of directors of the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (WBHIDC) while allotting the land , the bench remarked ,while commenting on the speed with which the proposal was cleared in Ganguly’s favour. This judgment was delivered on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by NGO – Humanity, Salt Lake, challenging the allotment, which ,it said, could have been done only through a public auction. The bench emphasized that the allotment process was to be followed to ensure transparency in dealing with public assets.
Honorable Justice Rajesh Bindal upheld justice on numerous cases but also got involved in compromising incidents. He was appointed as the acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court on 29 April after West Bengal finished electoral polling. In May, Honorable Justice Arindam Sinha, a senior judge of the Calcutta High Court, in an unprecedented action wrote to all the judges of the High Court including Honorable Justice Rajesh Bindal himself raising questions over the acting Chief Justices intervention in the Narada sting case in transferring the case to the High Court and staying the bail granted to four TMC leaders by a CBI Court. The four TMC leaders were granted bail by a special CBI Court in Kolkata on 17th May. Then the agency filed a petition to the Calcutta High Court, urging the judges to transfer the trial from a special CBI Court to the High Court and declare the proceedings in the lower court a nullity and start proceedings afresh. Honorable Justice Rajesh Bindal , as acting Chief Justice accepted the communication an stayed the decision of the CBI Court in a hearing after hearing regular court hours. After this the Calcutta High Court in a departure from the rules set up a five judge bench to hear all cases connected to the polls.
As any other Honorable Justice he had faced problems in his ongoing to tenure from The Jammu & Kashmir High Court Bar Association resolving to boycott the Court of Justice Rajesh Bindal from September 17 .A resolution to this effect was passed in a meeting of the Executive Committee Special invitees of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar association on 16th September. The main purpose of the meeting being conducted was to discuss the attitude or behavior of Justice Bindal towards the Advocates in the Court while hearing of any proceeding.
Same fate repeated again when a few lawyers practicing in the Calcutta High Court wrote to the acting Chief Justice to reassign a case from Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and list it before a division bench, they threatened to boycott proceedings headed by Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal if the demands were not taken seriously.
One of the notable judgments of the Honorable Justice Rajesh Bindal was Aman Kumar vs State of Punjab and Ors 2018.The Punjab and Haryana high Court division bench of Honorable Justice Rajesh Bindal and Honorable Justice BS Walia quashed a petition comprising of previous provisions enacted by the State Government in 2008.Advocate DS Rawat confirmed after the proceeding that the provisions in law was declared ultra vires by the respected High Court.
The provisions gave accelerated promotions to the SCs was challenged by Aman Kumar and others against the provisions against the provisions of Section 4 (3) ,4 (4) , 4 (8) of the Punjab Scheduled Caste and Backward classes (Reservation in Services ) Act, 2006.It gave 20 % reservation in Group C and D category and 14 % in group A and B.As a result thousands of employees were promoted .The petition also referred to the Supreme Court previous judgments which opined that state government was not bound to make provision for SCs and STs in promotions. However, if this discretion was to be exercised, the state had to first collect quantified data showing backwardness of the class and inadequacy of representation of that class in public appointment.
Currently Hon’ble Justice Rajesh Bindal is acting as current Hon’ble Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court where he assumed office on 11 October 2021.His tenure ends on 15th April,2023 , if not elevated to the SC.
References:
https://www.barandbench.com/news/jk-hc-bar-association-resolves-to-boycott-court-of-justice-rajesh-bindal
https://www.barandbench.com/news/calcutta-high-court-lawyers-threaten-boycott-acting-chief-justice-rajesh-bindal-court
https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/hc-quashes-provisions-of-punjab-law-on-accelerated-promotions-to-scs/story-jLpvUws4I0JaMmwYvM54PJ.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajesh_Bindal
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