Apex Court Junks Bombay Lawyers Association's Plea Seeking 2 Years As Cooling Off Period For Judges Before Accepting Political Appointments

The Bombay Lawyers Association, in its plea filed through founder President and Advocate Ahmad Mehdi Abdi, referred to the appointment of former apex court judge Justice S Abdul Nazeer as the governor of Andhra Pradesh on February 12 this year as the reason for filing the case.

A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia while refusing to entertain the petition, observed, "The issue whether a retired Judge should accept any office or not has to be left to the conscience of the Judge concerned, or any law in this regard brought into force but cannot form a subject matter of directions under Article 32 of the Constitution of India".

Justice Kaul at the outset, questioned if the petition challenged appointments of Judges to the Tribunals also. However, for this question Abdi clarified that he was on political appointments which depend on the executive without cooling off period.

On asking how the court could stop someone from contesting election as the post of the Governor is a political post, Justice Kaul while highlighting the intention remarked, "You do not want a particular person to become Governor".

The petition referred to several instances of former judges accepting post-retirement offers of the political executive and said, "The acceptance of political appointments by the Judges of this Court and High Courts after retirement without any cooling off period is adversely affecting public perception about independence of judiciary."

"In more recent times, Chief Justice (since retired) P Sathasivam was appointed as the Governor of Kerala, Justice Ranjan Gogoi (ex-CJI) was nominated to Rajya Sabha and Justice Abdul Nazeer was appointed as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh," the Mumbai-based lawyers' body said in its plea.
It had sought a direction to declare it was a constitutional requirement that "after retirement there should be two years cooling off period for the Judges of Supreme Court and High Court from accepting any other political appointment".

The plea also sought a direction to the Centre to impose a condition at the time of appointment that after retirement there would be a cooling off period of two years for the judges of the higher courts before they accept a political office.

Referring to the appointment of Justice Nazeer as the governor and former CJI Gogoi's nomination to Rajya Sabha, the petition said accepting such posts could undermine the public perception about independence of the judiciary.

"In 1952, Justice Fazal Ali was appointed as the Governor of Orissa, shortly after retiring from this Hon'ble Court. In 1958, Chief Justice M C Chagla resigned from the Bombay High Court in order to become India's Ambassador to the US at Prime Minister Nehru's invitation. In April 1967, Chief Justice Subba Rao resigned from this Hon'ble Court to contest elections for President," it said.

Accordingly, the bench dismissed the petition.

Cause Title: Bombay Lawyers Association v. Union of India