MUMBAI: The President of India appointed Bombay high court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta as judge of the Supreme Court. His appointment takes the SC Judge strength to 28. The Sanctioned strength is 34.
Justice Datta who was a senior judge of the Calcutta high court took oath as the Chief Justice of Bombay HC on April 28, 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown.
He took over as the Chief Justice of Bombay HC after Justice Bhushan P Dharmadhikari during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensured the functioning of the court through virtual and hybrid modes. The SC collegium had recommended his elevation as judge of the Apex Court on September 27.
CJ Datta had been permanent judge of Calcutta HC since June 2006. He is 1965 born and will be retiring from the apex court in 2030.
During the height of the lockdown, the CJ led the bench also comprising Justice Girish Kulkarni for a long time and passed numerous orders in Public Interest litigation (PIL) to streamline Covid preventive measures and to ensure that government and civic body takes all steps to ensure adequate medicines and facilities are available and also to ensure that prison inmates in crowded jails also have their rights protected and given necessary facilities including video and phone calls with families.
On December 16, 2020, in a setback to the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led state government, a division bench including Justice Datta, while hearing the Central government's plea through its salt commissioner laying claim to the 102-acre Kanjurmarg salt pan land, stayed the order of the collector that transferred the land to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) for the Metro car shed project.
On April 5 last year, the CJ led bench had directed the CBI to carry out a preliminary inquiry into the corruption allegations made by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh against the then state home minister Anil Deshmukh, while terming the case as "unprecedented". In the same month, Justice Datta pulled up the state government over fire incidents in hospitals across Maharashtra and observed that the safety of patients was of paramount importance.
In July 2021, a division bench led by Justice Datta had directed the civic authorities to ensure that elderly and disabled persons have the benefit of Covid-19 vaccination at their residence as per the policy formulated by the state government, despite the Centre not being willing to adopt a policy for the same.
This week CJ Datta and Justice Abhay Ahuja took the state to task on transgender rights. "The Supreme Court has already asked all states to make provision for the third gender. Just because you (the government) don't have a policy yet, you cannot deny (job prospects for the third gender persons)," Chief Justice Datta said."You have to introduce the changes. Make provisions..carry on with the process."
The CJ Datta recently in September held as non-maintainable, writ petitions against Air India Ltd which were filed way back in 2011-2014 over salaries, other issues, but had come up for final hearing after its privatization.
Last August, the HC bench led by CJ Datta had in another significant order in a PIL filed by Ratan Soli Luth alleging eight month delay by the Maharashtra Governor in appoint 12 nominated MLCs recommended by the council of ministers (in the then Uddhav Thackeray led state government) had dealt with "an interesting question in regard to the powers and role of the Governor to make nomination on the Legislative Council", and said, "Any possible abuse of power by any Constitutional authority, as the recent history would bear testimony, has to be eschewed."
The CJ and Justice Kulkarni had also made a public law declaration saying, "obligation, which the Constitution vests on the Governor to either accept or return the recommendations as made by the Council of Ministers forming part of advice, has to be discharged within a reasonable time. Eight months, on facts, seems to be beyond reasonable time."
His judgment had said, "For the Government to function smoothly and in an orderly manner, as ordained by the Constitution, abidance to Constitutional norms and ethos is non-negotiable and there is absolutely no place for decisions based on personal whims or caprices of what, in the perception of the Council of Ministers, is good for the State." The bench had before parting said, "this Court expresses hope and trust that things will be set right at an early date."
Those 12 names recommended by the Thackeray government were scrapped this month after Eknath Shinde became CM.
In another major judgment, the CJ led bench had in PIL filed by former top cops in Mumbai against the media in the wake of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely death, directed restraint from displaying or initiating any debate/interview “in relation to death by suicide, depicting the deceased as one having a weak character or intruding in any manner on the privacy of the deceased; that causes prejudice to an ongoing inquiry … and pronouncing on merits of the case."
Justice Datta also passed several directions to authorities to provide medical assistance to citizens besides redressing the grievances of migrant workers during the lockdown.
