P Krishna Bhat finally appointed as judge of Karnataka High Court

An order has finally been issued on appointment of judicial officer P Krishna Bhat as additional judge of the Karnataka High Court, after years of wavering by the Union government.

The Union Ministry of Law and Justice has on Monday night issued the notification, appointing him for two years as additional judge of the High Court.

"In exercise of power under Article 224 of the Constitution, the President is pleased to appoint Bhat to be an additional judge of the Karnataka High Court, for a period of two years with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office," it stated.

The Centre has last week cleared the file on elevation of judicial officer Bhat.

Born in 1960, he would have a tenure of just two years as a judge of the High Court.

The Centre has been sitting over the file on Bhat for quite some time, apparently in view of allegations by a woman judge.

The Supreme Court Collegium had on October 15, 2019 rejected the Centre's second request for reconsideration, rarely made in case of judges appointment.

The Collegium had then asked the Centre to process “most expeditiously” the recommendation, made twice earlier for elevation of Bhat as a judge of the Karnataka High Court.

The Collegium had first recommended his name wayback in August 2016.

It was reiterated on April 6, 2017.

However, the Union government still sought reconsideration of the proposal, which was seen as "interference into appointment of judges".

In a hard-hitting letter to the then CJI and all judges, Justice J Chelameswar (since retired) had in March, 2018 questioned the government's act of writing a letter directly to the Karnataka High Court's then chief justice Dinesh Maheshwari, now a Supreme Court judge, who had ordered an inquiry on some “old allegations” against Bhat by a woman judge.

He had asked the CJI to convene a full court to discuss “government's interference” in the appointment of judges to the high courts.