This story is from February 24, 2020

Bombay high court gets justice BP Dharmadhikari as acting chief justice

Bombay high court gets justice BP Dharmadhikari as acting chief justice
Bombay high coyurt.
MUMBAI: Justice BP Dharmadhikari is now the acting chief justice of Bombay high court from Monday following the retirement of CJ Pradeep Nandrajog. The union law ministry on Monday issued a notification to state that the President of India has appointed justice BP Dharmadhikari as the senior most judge of Bombay HC “to perform duties of the office of the CJ with immediate effect."
He is due to retire on April 27. It is expected that he would soon also be appointed as the chief justice too of Bombay HC.
Advocate Milind Sathe, president of Bombay Bar Association, the oldest association of original side lawyers in the city, said "In keeping with a policy that permits a senior most judge who has less than six months to retire but who is eligible to be elevated as chief justice of another high court to be appointed as CJ of the same high court. In this case, Justice Dharmadhikari is likely to be elevated as Bombay HC CJ soon." While taking charge as acting CJ requires no swearing-in, bring elevated as CJ will.
In the recent past in October 2018 Justice Naresh Patil was made chief justice of Bombay HC too after being made the acting CJ after justice V K Tahilramani was elevated as CJ of Kerala high court. On chief justice Patil’s retirement last April CJ Nandrajog was appointed as thr CJ.
Justice Dharmadhikari had been appointed HC Judge in March 2004. In his 16 year Judicial career he quietly passed numerous judgments, including many significant rulings. Appointed as HC Judge at Nagpur first, few know that he has a science background with a BSc in biology and twin degree with BA in English too before his LLb from Nagpur university. He mostly practiced law since 1980.
Not known to ever raise his voice in court, he is also known to be no-nonsense and junior lawyers are equally happy to appear before his bench.
On Monday he distributed the chief justice’s assignment four ways which included his bench too. He continued in his courtroom at 53 on division bench with justice Nitin Borkar next to the CJ’s which is 52 on thr second floor.
Among his major verdicts recently was one where he presided on bench with Justice S K Shinde which confirmed death sentence for five of the six convicted last January by a trial court in a triple murder case in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra.
His was the bench which also last July commuted death sentence to life term of 35 years for Purushottam Borate and Pradeep Kokade, convicted for raping and killing an employee in Pune, on November 1, 2007.
"We find that the delay (of over four years) in execution of death penalty in present matter is undue, inordinate and unreasonable," he had said.
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About the Author
Swati Deshpande

Swati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, where she has been covering courts for over a decade. She is passionate about law and works towards enlightening people about their statutory, legal and fundamental rights. She makes it her job to decipher for the public the truth, be it in an intricate civil dispute or in a gruesome criminal case.

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