A public interest plea has been filed before Karnataka High Court seeking protection for one of its judges, Justice H.P. Sandesh, who recently alleged being indirectly threatened with transfer for pulling up the state Anti-Corruption Bureau in a graft case.

Friday’s petition moved by advocate Ramesh Naik L. seeks adequate security for Justice Sandesh and a high court-monitored probe by a special investigation team into the judge’s allegation, first made verbally in open court and later in writing.

Naik has cited the recent precedent of the state government providing Y-plus security to Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, the previous chief justice of the high court who headed the bench that upheld the hijab ban in classrooms.

“Any threat, pressure, coercion, ambition, undue influence, enticement from inside or outside forces in respect of transfer of any high court judge result(s) in gross violation of Article 222 of the Constitution,” the petition says.

Article 222 deals with the procedure for transferring high court judges.

“Hence ‘threat of transfer’ to any judge of hon'ble high court amounts to interference in the administration of justice and hence it is a violation of the principle of independent judicial system,” the petition says.

Justice Sandesh had rapped the ACB for failing to arrest a senior official in a bribery case. Later, on July 4, he revealed in open court that a fellow judge of the high court had indirectly warned him about a possible transfer.

Justice Sandesh had told the ACB counsel “your ADGP is so powerful”, appearing to blame the bureau chief, ADG Seemanth Kumar Singh, for the threat.

During the next hearing on July 11, Justice Sandesh placed his allegation on record, revealing that the threat had been communicated to him at the farewell dinner for Chief Justice Awasthi on July 1.

He had said the threat was “an attack on the independence of judiciary and interference in dispensation of justice”.

On July 12, the Supreme Court restrained Justice Sandesh from passing any orders in the matter for three days, acting on a petition from Singh that challenged the high court judge’s observations against him and the ACB.

Singh’s petition had been listed for hearing in the apex court on July 15 but did not come up.