Judge President John Hlophe's lawyers have accused the judges who dismissed his gross misconduct challenges of being intent on protecting an unlawful Judicial Service Commission (JSC) process "for a purpose unrelated to the Constitution itself".
They also argued that a full bench of the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg should also have believed that Hlophe's legal action against the JSC was driven by constitutional concerns and not found that he was trying to "immunise" himself from accountability.
"The suggestion that he [Hlophe] has mounted these proceedings to avoid accountability is not supported by the record of evidence and has been made to create an erroneously (sic) view of his legitimate and valid concerns with this JSC process," Hlophe's lawyers argued in a leave to appeal application filed last week.
