Government of India has reportedly cleared the elevation of Justice Amitava Roy, the present Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. It is pertinent to mention that his name was recommended by the Supreme Court collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu only last week. Thus, the Government has moved quite swiftly to clear his name for elevation as a Supreme Court Judge. This swiftness appears to be due to the reason that Justice Amitava Roy would otherwise have retired on 1st March 2015 (i.e., in next about 3 days) as a High Court judge, since he was born on 1st March 1953 and the retirement age for a High Court judge is 62 years. However, as a Supreme Court judge, he will get another 3 years’ period since the retirement age for a Supreme Court judge is 65 years.
As reported earlier, the Collegium system of appointing judges has been replaced by a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), though NJAC is yet to be formally set up since the Government is yet to notify in the official Gazette the coming into force of the provisions of the Constitution (99th Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014, which provide for the establishment of the NJAC. However, the aforesaid Constitutional Amendment has been challenged in the Supreme Court by way of three PILs and these PILs are yet to be heard.
In view of these reasons, the appointment of Justice Amitava Roy as a Judge of Supreme Court may perhaps be one of the last few such appointments made through the collegium system.
Justice Roy was earlier a judge of the Gauhati High Court and also the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, before being transferred as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.
Even after the appointment of Justice Roy, two more vacancies of Supreme Court judges will still be there. And, in addition, one more vacancy will be created with the retirement of Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya on 14 March 2015.
