Earlier the Law Ministry issued a notification on April 30, appointing judicial officers Shivashankar Amarannavar, Smt. M Ganeshaiah Uma, Vedavyasachar Srishananda, Hanchate Sanjeevkumar, and Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai as additional judges for two years. The principal district and sessions judge Sri Master RKGMM Mahaswamiji argued the order passed to promote Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai from district judiciary to an additional judge of the High Court for two years as “not only arbitrary, unconstitutional, unlawful but also a total disregard of existing binding executive instructions“. Consequently, the petitioner argued that his name was ignored and not taken into consideration for promotion or elevation, along with his batch mates; and a junior was appointed instead.
The Bench observed that such a petition could not be considered, especially at the “11th hour”. The hearing was held at 10 AM. Notably, 30 minutes before the judges sworn in as the additional judges of the Karnataka High Court; along with four other judicial officers. Accordingly, the Apex Court did not intervene and stated, “Court has not interfered with a swearing-in ceremony in history, with just 15 minutes left for it“.
