He would be the first former Chief Justice of India in the republic’s history to occupy a Raj Bhavan if P. Sathasivam’s appointment as the new governor of Kerala is inked by the President of India.
And, the former head of the Supreme Court will be administered the oath of office by the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court.
No one in the legal circles had expected that Sathasivam, 65, who hails from Tamil Nadu’s Bhavani area, would take up the governor’s position after serving as the 40th Chief Justice of India.
This has created unease both in the legal circles and the political establishment across the country.
In Kerala, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and Congress State president VM Sudheeran have openly expressed their displeasure—of course, for not consulting the State government beforehand.
Even the BJP leaders are not enthused—they would have loved to see a senior party leader replacing Sheila Dikshit, who has put in her papers after serving as Kerala Governor for just five months.
Particularly when the octogenarian O. Rajagopalan, the seniormost BJP leader in Kerala who unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha election from Thiruvananthapuram, is still waiting around expecting to be accommodated in any of the vacant Raj Bhavans in the country.
State party leaders had taken up his case with the party president, Amit Shah, who was recently in Kerala.
Commentators contend that the appointment would compromise the judiciary’s independence and bring down the judges’ esteem in the public eye. They argue that future CJIs as well as other justices might be tempted to toe the Government’s line hoping for a decent reemployment post-retirement.
For instance, one commentator points out that in the six-member National Judicial Appointments Commission, legislated recently, the government could easily have its way if it can buy the silence of the CJI and two other senior judges of the Supreme Court.
Another contention is that the governorship, which lasts "during the pleasure of the President", is too insignificant a position for a former CJI to hold. Moreover, he would be administered the oath of office by a State Chief Justice!
However, PS Sreedharan Pillai, lawyer and member of the BJP’s national council, told Business Line that already the law requires that retired judges be at the head of many commissions and tribunals, such as the Human Rights Commission and Right to Information Commission.
“Of the 21 Supreme Court judges who had retired since January 2008,” he noted, “18 have been thus re-employed.”
Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, in a commentary, points out that more than anything else, a CJI taking up the Governor’s position is a question of propriety.
Sathasivam had made a name for himself as a fair judge which he would lose if he accepted the new job. Raj hopes that the ex-CJI would put an end to all the controversies over his appointment by a “bold retreat''.