President appoints Mumbai advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan as Judge of Bombay High Court | India News

MUMBAI: The Central government issued a notification on Thursday appointing Mumbai advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan as additional Judge of the Bombay high court. In January the Supreme Court Collegium had reiterated its February 2022 recommendation for Sundaresan to move from Bar to the Bench, as Judge of Bombay HC, saying he would be an asset to the judiciary with his specialisation in commercial law.
Over ten months later, the Centre issued the notification of the President appointing Sundaresan as Additional Judge for two years, with effect from when he assumes charge of his office. All new HC Judges are appointed as Additional Judges and usually made permanent at the end of the two years.
This appointment takes the Bombay HC Judge strength to 69, out of the sanctioned strength of 94. There are at present 40 permanent Judges at the HC.
In January, the SC collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India, D Y Chandrachud had said Sundaresan “deserves” to be appointed as Judge and after considering objections to his candidature over his views on the social media, had found nothing to infer that he is “biased”.
On October 04, 2021, the HC Collegium recommended his name as its Judge. On February 16, 2022, the SC Collegium also recommended his name for the Judgeship, while on November 25, 2022, the Government sought reconsideration of the recommendation. A year on, the Centre appointed him as HC Judge.
The objections raised against was that “he has aired his views in the social media on several matters which are the subject matter of consideration before the courts.’’
The collegium, however, had stated, “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. 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 the social media on the important policies, initiatives and directions of the Government” (as indicated in the objections of Department of Justice) nor is there any material to indicate that the expressions used by the candidate are suggestive of his links with any political party with strong ideological leanings.’’
Besides, the Collegium in January had also clearly said, “All citizens have the right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. 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.’’
The SC collegium had also said, “Sundaresan has specialized in commercial law and would be an asset to the Bombay High Court which has a large volume of cases of commercial and securities laws, among other branches. The Department of Justice has adverted to paragraph 175 of the Second Judges Case [(1993) 4 SCC 441] to the effect that the candidate to be selected must possess high integrity, honesty, skill, high order of emotional stability, firmness, serenity, legal soundness, ability and endurance. The candidate fulfills these qualities.’’ And then said, “Having regard to the above, the Collegium is of the considered view that Shri Somasekhar Sundaresan deserves to be appointed as Judge of the Bombay High Court.’’