Recently the Bombay High Court has sparked outrage online for its back-to-back controversial decisions relating to child sexual offenses. Justice Pushpa Virendra Ganediwala shocked the country with her judgments stating that groping a minor’s breast without “skin to skin contact”, “the act of holding a girl’s hands and “opening the zip of pants” cannot be termed as ‘sexual assault’ under POSCO, and that a single man cannot rape “without scuffle”.
Following these shocking rulings, the Supreme Court collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India has taken the rare step of withdrawing its own recommendation to the Ministry of Law to make Justice Ganediwala a permanent judge of the HC. However, she will continue to be the additional judge for the Mumbai High Court’s Nagpur bench, TOI reports.
The 3-member Collegium comprising of Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, and Rohinton Fali Nariman has now recalled the request to the Law Ministry. Interestingly, this request to make Judge Ganediwala permanent came one day after her January 19 judgment of “skin-to-skin” contact.
Two senior Supreme Court judges Justices A M Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, both hailing from Maharahtra, had conveyed their reservations to the Collegium in closed-door conversations. While the CJI was deliberating on this, Justice Ganediwala kept handing out more embarrassing acquittals in separate cases, all within a single week. This proved to be the last straw and the recommendation was finally revoked.
These 2 senior SC judges Khanwillkar and Chandrachund reportedly had reservations against her initial appointment as an additional judge in February 2019 itself. They are of the opinion that she needs to be sensitized about the aim and objective behind the enactment of POSCO.
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