While the Collegium system has come to an end and a Constitution bench of the Supreme Court is hearing the challenge to the new National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) system of appointing judges, the process of appointment to the posts of judges in Supreme Court and High Courts has come to a standstill. However, while this suspense over judicial appointments continues, on 7 May 2015, the President of India has issued an order appointing Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale, the senior-most judge in the Andhra Pradesh high court, as the Acting Chief Justice of that high court with effect from 7 May 2015 consequent upon the retirement of Shri Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta, Chief Justice of that High Court. It appears that this order became necessary since it is necessary to have at least an acting chief justice in the high court for the smooth functioning of the court.
It is not clear from the order issued by the President as to whether the Chief Justice of India was consulted and/or whether the Collegium had made any recommendation for issuing the above order. It is noteworthy that Collegium system has already been replaced with the NJAC, but the NJAC is still not functional since the Chief Justice of India had refused to join the selection committee meeting to select two eminent members to be part of the NJAC (see here). Therefore, it would be interesting to see whether the appointment of Justice Bhosale as acting chief justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court which looks after Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states, would be perfectly in order in the absence of any NJAC recommendation and/or Collegium recommendation.
A release of the Press Information Bureau in this regard is reproduced below:
“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of article 223 of the Constitution of India, the President is please to appoint Shri Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale, senior-most Judge of High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh, to perform the duties of the office of the Chief Justice of that High Court with effect from 07th May, 2015 consequent upon the retirement of Shri Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta, Chief Justice of that High Court.”
