Impress upon young advocates not to decline judgeship for economic reasons: Justice Dipankar Datta of Supreme Court

Supreme Court judge, Justice Dipankar Datta on Saturday urged judges and senior lawyers to impress upon young lawyers to accept judgeship and not reject the same only for economic reasons. .The judge was addressing lawyers at a event organised to felicitate him by the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa.Justice Datta recounted that many advocates he met refused to take up judgeship citing financial concerns when he had approached such lawyers while he was the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court.“The disinclination of advocates of some standing not respecting the call of the Chief Justice to switch sides needs to be dwelled upon. Some may have genuine difficulties, personal or otherwise, dissuading them from considering acceptance of the offer. But those who decline on economic considerations must be impressed upon to consider the duty they owe to the people of the nation and revisit their decision not to switch,” the judge said..He pointed out that during his tenure, he had been approached by lawyers of great repute asking him to ensure there are a sufficient number of judges. The judge added that ensuring this becomes difficult if advocates refuse to come to the bench. “You people have to understand that as the Chief Justice, my hands were also tied. Unless I get a good pool of advocates who can be recommended for elevation, where do we get the judges? It does no good appointing judges say at the age of 53-54 years, as they would be there only for seven-eight years. I've always stressed upon catching advocates young. But for that, I needed their concurrence to join the bench. That was sadly lacking in many a case,” Justice Datta said. .He urged senior advocates like Darius Khambata, Venkatesh Dhond, Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, Nitin Thakker, and Atul Damle to impress on junior lawyers to take up judgeship..Justice Datta also pointed out that because of a dearth in judges, there will not be a single judge from the Bombay High Court pool in the Supreme Court Collegium between November 2025 till the end of 2029.“Now, if we appoint judges to the High Court, at the age of 48/49/50 years, we won’t get a sufficient number of judges in the collegium. That is one aspect that needs to be addressed,” Justice Datta said. .The chief guest at the felicitation event, Supreme Court judge, Justice AS Oka spoke on the need for proper infrastructure for judges as and when the strength increases..He stressed Justice Datta's achievement of having secured a sufficiently large plot of land from the Maharastra government for the construction of new High Court complex at Bandra.“Bombay High Court has a huge issue. Our sanctioned strength is 94 judges. There is a huge filing (of cases) not only in the principal seat but also in other benches and there is only two-thirds number of judges to deal with that. Former Chief Justice RD Dhanuka rightly said in one of the interviews that the principal bench needs minimum of 50 judges. But the question which we'll have to ask ourselves is, where those 50 judges will sit,” Justice Oka said..He also expressed his disappointment over the delay in confirming the appointment of Justice Datta to the Supreme Court. “I want to say, as somebody who's holding Constitutional office, I am sorry to say that it took more than two months for the government to clear his recommendation as judge of the Supreme Court,” Justice Oka said..Acting Chief Justice of Bombay High Court, Justice Nitin Jamdar also attended the event and gave an insider’s perspective on Justice Datta’s contribution to the Bombay High Court.He spoke about how Justice Datta would have been enriched by the unique geographical challenges of the Bombay High Court.“We have forests of Goa, we have beaches, we have mountains, we have tribals, we have the richest persons in the country as litigants. So in that, we have a diverse litigation,” the judge said.