Centre Notifies Appointment of Additional Judge in Bombay HC

The Centre on Thursday issued a notification appointing advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court, acting belatedly on a reiteration made by the Supreme Court Collegium led by Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, in January this year.

“In exercise of the power conferred by Clause (1) of Article 224 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Somasekhar Sundaresan as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court for a period of two years, with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office,” said a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.

It may be recalled that the government wanted the SC Collegium to reconsider Sundaresan’s candidature since he expressed views on social media on matters pending before the courts.

Brushing aside the objections raised by the Department of Justice, the SC Collegium in a statement released on January 18 this year had said: "The manner in which the candidate has expressed his views does not justify the inference that he is a 'highly-biased opinionated person' or that he has been selectively critical on social media on the important policies, initiatives and directions of the government."

It added that all citizens have the right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, and said that expression of views by a candidate does not disentitle him to hold a constitutional office so long as the person proposed for judgeship is a person of competence, merit, and integrity.

"Having considered the objection to the candidature of Somasekhar Sundaresan, the Collegium is of the view that the views on social media attributed to the candidate, do not furnish any foundation to infer that he is biased.

"The issues on which opinions have been attributed to the candidate are in the public domain and have been extensively deliberated upon in the print and electronic media," it further said the statement uploaded on the apex court website.

In 2021, the Collegium of Bombay High Court had recommended Sundaresan's name among others. In February 2022, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended his name for appointment as a Judge of the Bombay High Court.

Recently, Attorney General R. Venkataramani had told the top court that “progress has been made” in relation to the names reiterated by the SC Collegium.

In its order, the apex court had recorded that a total of 13 names are pending with the Centre and five names are pending despite the reiteration by the Collegium.