Justice Jayant Patel, former acting Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court and currently a judge in the Karnataka High Court has resigned from the Service.
Though Justice Patel has not cited any reason for tendering resignation, sources said he was apparently unhappy since he was not made the Chief Justice in any High Court despite his seniority, and even after the Supreme Court Bar Association and the Gujarat High Court Bar Association have in the past raised the issue of his elevation as Chief Justice.
It may be noted that as a senior judge of the Gujarat High Court, Justice Patel had ordered CBI probe in the controversial fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan and three others and monitored the case for more than six months.
It was during his monitoring that the CBI filed charge sheet in the case naming top officials of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Gujarat police for staging the fake encounter.
In Karnataka High Court, he was due for elevation as Chief Justice or Acting CJ but was instead transferred to Allahabad High Court where he was to be the third senior-most judge.
Justice Jayant Patel sent his resignation to the Chief Justice's office and the same has been accepted.