In a uncommon occasion of demotion of a High Court choose, the Supreme Court Collegium has determined to not suggest the identify of Justice Pushpa V Ganediwala as a everlasting choose of the Bombay High Court, due to the controversial interpretation of two of his judgments on sexual harassment. was examined carefully. The Prevention of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012.
Justice Ganediwala is presently an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court. The collegium’s choice means he might be demoted again to the district judiciary.
The Indian Express has realized that aside from the 2 controversial selections, the collegium discovered a disturbing “consistent pattern” within the choose’s selections.
The collegium that decides appointments to the excessive courts contains Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
Additional judges in High Courts are appointed beneath Article 224(1) of the Constitution straight from the Bar or the State Judiciary for a time period not exceeding two years. His retirement age is 62 years. Additional choose positions are constitutionally meant to take care of the “increasing burden of the court”, however are more and more used as a probationary interval for judges earlier than being promoted to everlasting judges.
Born in 1969 at Paratwada in Amravati district of Maharashtra, Justice Ganediwala was appointed as a district choose in 2007.
In 2019, he was appointed as a further choose of the Bombay High Court in Nagpur. The Supreme Court Collegium’s approval got here after it overturned its choice earlier in 2018.
His identify was first beneficial by the High Court in November 2017 and got here up earlier than the Supreme Court Collegium in September 2018 together with 5 different judicial officers from the state. The then CJI Dipak Misra and the collegium of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur deferred his candidature. The collegium then obtained two sturdy notes of dissent from the judges of the Bombay High Court who have been consulted on the appointment – Justices Khanwilkar and Chandrachud. Despite this, he was appointed in 2019 by a collegium consisting of then CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices AK Sikri and SA Bobde.
Two judgments of Justice Ganediwala concluded that it might not quantity to the offense of sexual harassment beneath Section 7 of the POCSO Act if there was “no direct physical contact, i.e. skin to skin” between the accused and the sufferer.
In November, the Supreme Court struck down two judgments of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, which held that “sexual intent” is crucial ingredient to represent the offense of sexual harassment beneath Section 7 of the POCSO Act, Not “skin-to-skin” contact with the child.
The Bombay HC Collegium had in July beneficial the names of 5 extra judges to be appointed everlasting judges. According to a press release by the Supreme Court Collegium on Thursday, three judges – Justices Madhav Jayajirao Jamdar, Amit B Borkar and S Dattatreya Kulkarni – have been beneficial for appointment as everlasting judges and Justice Abhay Ahuja’s tenure might be for one 12 months. has been exceeded.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
