Lucknow: Transfer of two judges has become a subject of intense public debate in Uttar Pradesh. Aditya Singh, civil judge (senior division) was made the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) in the same district while the current chief judicial magistrate Vibhanshu Sudheer was transferred to Sultanpur in the reshuffle of 14 judges in an administrative order by the Allahabad high court. The transfer order triggered protest at the Chandausi district court with lawyers demanding the transfer of CJM Sudheer be revoked. “He [CJM Vibhanshu Sudheer] had begun taking up old and pending cases in which witnesses were waiting for years to testify. This had raised our hopes of people getting justice. His conduct in the court was also impressive. That is why we wanted him to stay a bit longer but was transferred,” Aditya Kumar Singh, a lawyer practicing in the Chandausi district court said.The backgroundThe transfer of CJM Sudheer comes almost a week after he ordered the registration of an FIR against additional superintendent of police Anuj Chaudhary and 12 other policemen. The FIR order followed a plea by the father of a victim who had sustained bullet injury during the violence in Sambhal following a court-ordered survey of the Jama Masjid in the district. The order to register the FIR did not go down will with the Sambhal police, who decided to challenge it in a competent court. This is the second time the Sambhal police has refused to comply with the court order. Last year, the same judge, CJM Sudheer, had ordered registration of FIR against policemen in a separate case. Sambhal police had then refused to comply with it.Interestingly, Aditya Singh, civil judge (senior division), who will be replacing CJM Sudheer in Sambha, is the same judge who had ordered the advocate commissioner survey of Sambhal’s Jama Masjid in November 2024 that later triggered violence. Third transfer in less than a yearMeanwhile, this will be the third transfer for CJM Sudhir in less than a year. Since May 2025, he has served as CJM in Lalitpur, Agra and assumed charge in Sambhal on September 18, 2025. He served here for a little over three months before he was transferred to Sultanpur.Reacting to the protest by lawyers demanding transfer of CJM Sudheer be revoked, sources in the police department claim the protest was organised by lawyers who sympathise with the opposition. Teerath Raj Yadav, Chandausi bar association secretary while refusing to comment on the nature of the protest claimed that it was done in personal capacity by the lawyers. “The bar association didn’t protest or support anything in this matter. Neither did we submit any memorandum in this regard to the district judge. The protest happened in personal capacity,” Yadav said.