Judge Anu Grover Baliga Moved Out of Delhi's Exam-Cheating Fast-Track Court

The Delhi High Court has transferred Judge Anu Grover Baliga from the designated Fast-Track Court handling offences under the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, and posted Judge Ajay Gupta in her place.

The Fast-Track Court in question was set up specifically to try cases under the 2024 anti-cheating law, which criminalises the use of unfair means in public examinations, including paper leaks and impersonation. The court has handled a steady stream of cases since major examination-leak controversies pushed the Centre to legislate against organised cheating rackets targeting recruitment and entrance examinations, and its designation as a fast-track forum reflects Parliament's intent that such cases be tried on an accelerated timeline rather than joining the general backlog of criminal trials in the district judiciary.

Judicial transfers within the Delhi High Court's subordinate judiciary are handled through the High Court's administrative side rather than through the usual bureaucratic postings applicable to executive officers, with judges rotated across designated courts as part of routine administrative rebalancing that also accounts for caseload pressure and the seniority of judicial officers available for specialised postings.

Baliga's tenure at the Fast-Track Court placed her at the centre of some of the earliest prosecutions under the new examination-cheating law, a body of jurisprudence still being built as courts interpret the statute's provisions for the first time, including questions around bail eligibility and the scope of the law's provisions covering both organisers and candidates involved in unfair means. Trial courts handling these early cases have had limited appellate guidance to draw on, since the Public Examinations Act itself is barely two years old, leaving judges assigned to such courts to work through interpretive questions with comparatively little settled precedent to rely on.

Her transfer comes as part of the High Court's broader periodic reallocation of designated courts among judicial officers, a process that typically factors in seniority, caseload distribution, and administrative requirements across Delhi's district judiciary rather than any case-specific consideration, and such reallocations are typically announced together for multiple designated courts rather than in isolation. The administrative committee overseeing such postings within the High Court generally reviews designated-court assignments on a periodic cycle, weighing pendency figures at each court alongside the availability of judicial officers with the relevant subject-matter exposure.

Judge Ajay Gupta now takes charge of a court with a live docket of cases under the Public Examinations Act, inheriting matters at various stages of trial, a transition that requires incoming judges to quickly get across pending case files to avoid delays in an area of law that remains new to the Indian judicial system, particularly given the accelerated timelines the law itself contemplates for disposal. The handover typically involves the outgoing judge briefing the incoming officer on procedural matters pending before the court, including bail applications and evidentiary issues specific to ongoing trials, so that continuity is maintained despite the change in the presiding officer.

The transfer order was issued by the Delhi High Court's administrative wing and takes effect with immediate posting of both judges to their new assignments. Delhi's district judiciary has periodically reviewed the staffing of its specialised courts, including those dealing with the Public Examinations Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, and other subject-specific statutes, as caseloads under these newer laws continue to build and require adjustments to judicial deployment across the system.