Bombay High Court strength down to 54 after Justice AK Menon retires

Bombay High Court judge, Justice AK Menon demitted office on Monday bringing down the strength of the High Court to 54. The sanctioned strength of the Court is 94 judges..Justice Menon is the sixth judge to retire this year out of the eleven judges who are set for superannuation in 2022. There have been only 2 new appointments and one judge transferred to Bombay so far this year. Born in July 1960, Menon graduated from the Mumbai University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and secured a Bachelor of Laws degree from Government Law College, Mumbai.He enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa and began law practice with his father late C Achyutha Menon.Justice Menon was elevated as a High Court judge in March 2014..Justice Menon sat as a junior judge in division bench until 2018 and was, thereafter, assigned matters to be heard by single-judge bench.He mostly heard cases on original side jurisdiction which comprises civil, commercial and testamentary matters.As a single judge, the prominent matters heard by Justice Menon were the Richa Chaddha - Kamaal R Khan defamation suit, trademark dispute between Hindustan Unilever Limited and SEBAMED, setting aside ownership of a private company over a portion of land to be utilised for construction of metro car shed in Mumbai Metro Rail project and dispute between Yes Bank and DishTV over the attendance in the Extra-ordinary General Meeting..On his final day on the bench, Justice Menon sat with Chief Justice (CJ) Dipankar Datta to hear public interest litigation matters.After the bench finished hearing the case, senior advocates bid him farewell.Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh said that as a judge, Justice Menon disposed of many matters which had been pending since a long time.In response, Justice Menon said that he could do so only because of the co-operation of the Bar..“He (Justice Menon) is leaving us (the court) in difficult times,” CJ Datta said. The CJ was expressing his anguish over the rising vacancies in the High Court.CJ Datta had on two separate occasions bemoaned in open court about the vacancy position in the High Court and the strain of workload on other judges due to the same.His cause of concern stemmed from the fact that if no new appointments are made, the working strength of the High Court will come down from 54 to 51 by the end of this year, which would about 54 percent of the Court's sanctioned strength.Along with the retirements, the High Court saw two judges elevated as Chief Justices and transferred to Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively; and a resignation.