Bombay High Court judge quits, announces decision in open court

He was to retire on December 4, 2025. Lawyers present in the courtroom said he told them: “Those who are present in the court, I apologise to each one of you. I scolded you because I wanted you to improve. I do not want to hurt any of you because you all are like a family to me and I am sorry to tell you that I have submitted my resignation. You people (lawyers) work hard.”

He led a two-judge bench which, on October 14 last year, acquitted sacked Delhi University professor G N Saibaba who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017 over alleged Maoist links. The bench cited absence of valid sanction under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and declared the trial proceedings in a Gadchiroli court “null and void”. It also acquitted five others sentenced by the lower court.

But the very next day, the Supreme Court, in a special sitting, suspended the High Court judgement until further orders, noting that the High Court had not gone into the merits of the case or that of the trial court judgement or “the seriousness and gravity of the offences for which the accused were convicted”.

In April this year, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court order discharging Saibaba and sent the matter back to the High Court to be decided afresh by a different bench.

Last month, while staying the operation of a state Government Resolution (GR) of no punitive action against contractors of the Samruddhi Expressway, Justice Deo found “formidable substance” in submissions against the GR.

Appointed Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court on June 5, 2017, Justice Deo was made a Permanent Judge on April 12, 2019.

He had been an Assistant Solicitor General, representing the Central government before the Nagpur bench, and was also Advocate General of Maharashtra.

Justice Deo is the third judge of the Bombay High Court to resign in the last three years.

In February 2022, two days before the end of her tenure, Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala, Additional Judge who was denied elevation as a Permanent Judge, resigned. The Supreme Court Collegium had decided not to recommend the name of Justice Ganediwala as Permanent Judge after two of her verdicts were closely scrutinised for controversial interpretation of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

In February 2020, citing “purely personal and family” issues, Justice Satyaranjan C Dharmadhikari tendered his resignation. He was being considered for elevation as Chief Justice of another High Court. He quit nearly two years before his retirement was due.

Besides these three, on August, 2021, Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu, who first became Andhra Pradesh High Court judge in 2013 and later transferred to Kerala High Court judge in 2014 and subsequently to Bombay HC in 2019, resigned citing personal reasons. Justice Naidu had tendered resignation nearly 3 years before the retirement.