In a surprise move, most senior judge of Bombay HC resigns

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court’s senior-most judge resigned on Friday, making it only the second such resignation from any HC in the country in two decades. Justice Satyaranjan C Dharmadhikari, whose resignation is effective from Saturday, said that his action was on “purely personal” grounds and that he wanted to continue living in Maharashtra for his family’s sake.
A Bombay HC judge for over 16 years, he had since October been considered for elevation as the chief justice (CJ) of another high court.
The options given to him, reportedly, were the Madhya Pradesh, Madras, Jharkhand and Orissa high courts. After he reportedly turned them down, chief justices were appointed to the first three HCs, and also the Meghalaya HC (not an option given to Justice Dharmadhikari) in November. At the Orissa HC, Justice Kumari Sanju Panda was appointed acting chief justice on January 5.
“When you go to another state, it takes time to get familiar with the working culture there and the people,” Justice Dharmadhikari said after his resignation. “There is also a lot of administrative work that needs to be done as a judge, which takes time.”
He said he would be “connected and committed to law and perhaps get into arbitration” and continue to live in Mumbai.
The previous resignation of an HC judge was in September. Madras HC CJ V K Tahilramani resigned after the Supreme Court collegium declined her request to reconsider a transfer to the Meghalaya HC as its CJ.
Justice Dharmadhikari’s continuation would have led to an awkward situation in Bombay HC after the retirement of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog (due on February 23). Among the country’s HC judges who are non-CJs, he is the senior-most, implying that any judge to be appointed as the Bombay HC’s CJ would be junior to him. Justice Dharmadhikari cannot be made the Bombay HC’s CJ as no judge can become the CJ of the same HC expect if their remaining tenure is under six months. For example, Justice Naresh Patil, who retired in April 2019, was appointed CJ of the Bombay HC on October 29, 2018.
Justice Dharmadhikari’s resignation took lawyers by surprise. His last sitting was on his regular bench with Justice Riyaz Chagla, before lunch. He was being persuaded to leave Maharashtra since Justice V K Tahilramani left the Madras HC. “I had to take a call,” he said, in a “short span”. “My elders used to say, ‘listen when your family talks and listen when your body talks’.” Did his family, including his wife, ask him not to go to any other HC? To the question, the judge smiled and said, “No, no”.
An advocate since 1983, he was appointed a judge of the Bombay HC in 2003, the same year his father, the late Judge C S Dharmadhikari, was awarded a Padma Bhushan. His cousin, Justice B P Dharmadhikari, is the second senior-most judge at the Bombay HC right now.
Justice Satyaranjan C Dharmadhikari was born in 1960 to a family of lawyers. He studied law after BCom. His son, who has just finished his BCom, is planning to follow in his father’s footsteps and thus is preparing for the Maharashtra state law entrance test.
After resigning, the judge praised the Bombay HC. “It should continue to stand up for rights of those who feel they have suffered an injustice,” he said. “Dependency on judiciary is on the rise as people have stopped asking questions. With government as one of the biggest litigants, there are many challenges before the judiciary,” he said.
His father, he said, if alive, would have stood by whatever decision he took. “He may have said, ‘go, don’t worry… I will be here’.”