10 months after Collegium's reiteration, Centre clears appointment of Sundaresan as Add'l Bombay HC judge

The Centre had earlier returned Somasekhar Sundaresan's name on the ground that he has aired his views on social media on several matters, including those pending before courts.

The Union government on Thursday cleared the appointment of advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court, more than 10 months after the Supreme Court reiterated its recommendation on his name.

The Centre had earlier returned his name on the ground that he has aired his views on social media on several matters, including those pending before courts.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said the President of India, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint Sundaresan as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court.

The Supreme Court Collegium had first on February 16, 2022 recommended the name of Sundaresan for appointment as a Judge of the Bombay High Court. However, the government had on November 25, 2022 sought reconsideration of the said recommendation.

After the Collegium in January, this year reiterated the recommendation, the Centre finally cleared his appointment on Thursday.

According to the Memorandum of Procedure, the recommendation once reiterated by the Collegium has to be accepted by the Union government for appointment of judges.

While reiterating its recommendation, the Collegium had in January, this year, said, "All citizens have the right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution and 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".

It further said 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," it had said.