Practice of post-retirement plum postings continues, retired Justice Nazeer appointed as Governor of Andhra Pradesh

In continuing what could be termed as an authentic Indianised practice of parking retired judges in lucrative posts, the President appoints Justice Nazeer to function as the constitutional head at Amaravati, conferring a prestigious post-retirement job to another member of the Ayodhya bench.

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MERELY 40 days after his retirement from the Supreme Court, the President of India has appointed Justice S. Abdul Nazeer as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. In total, 13 states and Union territories are slated to get a new governor or lieutenant-governor.

On January 4 this year, Justice Nazeer retired as the third senior-most judge of the Supreme Court and a member of the Supreme Court Collegium, after a tenure of nearly six years at the court.

Justice Nazeer was part of the five-judge Constitution bench that delivered a unanimous decision in the 2019 Ayodhya-Ram Janm Bhoomi case through which the court had cleared the path for the construction of the Ram Mandir at the disputed site, even while it held the demolition of the Babri Masjid to be in violation of law.

He was also a part of the Constitution bench which declared the right to privacy to be a fundamental right in 2017, a three-judge bench which held in 2018 that the probability of reformation has to be considered before awarding the death sentence, and part of a four-judge majority on a Constitution bench that gave judicial sanction to the Union Government's 2016 demonetisation exercise last month.

Justice Nazeer had dissented from the majority view in the Triple Talaq case of 2017, in which the Supreme Court, by a 3:2 majority, held the practice unconstitutional. The minority judgment, authored by then Chief Justice J.S. Khehar and supported by Justice Nazeer, while disclosing the judges' opposition to the practice, did not hold it as unconstitutional, even as it noted that the Union government was in support of the petitioners' cause.

Instead, the two dissenting judges used their power under Article 142 of the Constitution to direct the Union government to consider a legislation with regard to the practice, while also placing a temporary injunction on Muslim husbands from pronouncing triple talaq till the time the Parliament enacts a law.

The Union Government then introduced and managed to get through in the Parliament the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act, 2019, which went a step beyond what the three-judge majority held, making the pronouncement of triple talaq an offence punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.

Ayodhya benchers

The first to retire after the Ayodhya verdict was delivered, former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who demitted office in November 2019, was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha mere months into his retirement. He took the oath of office as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha in March 2020.

Justice Ashok Bhushan retired in July 2021 and was appointed as the Chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in November 2021.

Justice S.A. Bobde, who succeeded Justice Gogoi as the CJI, and retired in April 2021, has not held a public office after retirement.

The fifth member of that bench is the current CJI Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud, who will serve as such till November 2024.

Judge to governor

On three instances in the past, a judge of the Supreme Court has been appointed as the Governor of a state after demitting office.

Justice S. Faizal, who served at the court till 1952, was first appointed the governor of Odisha (formerly Orissa) and then Assam between 1954-59.

Former CJI P. Sathasivam, who retired in April 2014, was appointed as the Governor of Kerala in November of that year during the tenure of the current National Democratic Alliance-led Union Government. His tenure as the governor ended in September 2019.

Justice M. Fathima Beevi, who was the first female judge of the Supreme Court and the first Muslim woman to serve in the higher judiciary in India, served as Governor of Tamil Nadu from 1997 till 2001. She had retired from the Supreme Court in 1992. She was appointed by the Janata Dal (United Front)-led government at the Centre.