Bombay High Court judge Justice Pushpa Ganediwala has resigned. She courted controversy over a series of judgments on child sexual abuse and received nationwide criticism from women and child rights activists for her interpretation of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Justice Pushpa Ganediwala. Image Courtesy: Bombay High Court
Bombay High Court judge Justice Pushpa Ganediwala has resigned. She courted controversy over a series of judgments on child sexual abuse and received nationwide criticism from women and child rights activists for her interpretation of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
She tendered her resignation on Thursday from the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court to President Ram Nath Kovind, also marking Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta.
Her tenure as additional judge was to end on Friday.
According to a report by Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency, she was neither given extension nor elevation by the Supreme Court collegium, official sources in the high court said.
After her problematic judgments given in January and February 2021, the apex court collegium had withdrawn its recommendation to appoint Justice Ganediwala as a permanent judge and instead extended for one year her tenure as additional judge.
This meant that Justice Ganediwala would be demoted back to district judiciary as district sessions judge at the end of her additional judgeship on 12 February, 2022.
What were the controversial judgments and other key judgments delivered by Justice Ganediwala and how was it received:
– In June 2017, Ganediwala, who was then Registrar-General of the Bombay High Court, suspended City Civil and Sessions Judge Ajay Dinode.
According to a report by Mumbai Mirror, Dinode was hearing a case relating to an alleged Rs 5,600 crore fraud National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) scam.
Even though Ganediwala confirmed the discontinuation of Judge Dinode’s services, she refused to divulge the reasons behind it terming it “an administrative call”.
– In September 2020, Ganediwala directed the Maharashtra government to make available sufficient staff and facilities at hospitals and other treatment facilities in Nagpur, Hindustan Times reported.
– The same month, she rejected a plea to have the Joint Entrance Examination deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as heavy flooding in parts of Maharashtra. Ganediwala directed the examination authorities to facilitate re-examinations for those who could not attend the scheduled examination date because of the circumstances, as per a report by The Hindu.
– In October 2020, she directed government-run hospitals to provide treatment to a pregnant woman who had been denied medical consultations as she was tested positive for Covid-19. She compared the Covid positive patients’ treatment to the generational social and public discrimination caused by the practice of untouchability of Dalit communities, according to a report by Mid-Day.
Ganediwala’s controversial judgment on child sexual abuse
In January 2021, the single-judge bench of Justice Ganediwal observed that there should be “skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent” in order to be considered as sexual assault. Ganediwala’s ruling also said that ‘mere groping’ will not fall under sexual assault.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court was hearing the plea of the accused, who was sentenced to jail for sexually assaulting a minor girl.
Ganediwala further ruled that “mere touching the chest of the minor will not amount to sexual assault” unless the accused removes clothes of the victim or slid hands inside the garments, making it a physical contact, as per a report by Outlook.
“The act of pressing the breast of a child aged 12 years, in the absence of any specific detail as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside her top and pressed her breast, would not fall under the definition of ‘sexual assault’,” the judge had said.
“It would certainly fall within the definition of section 354 of the IPC, which penalises outraging the modesty of a woman,” she added.
The single-judge bench of Justice Pushpa Ganediwala acquitted the man while pronouncing the ruling.
A few days later, while hearing a separate case, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court observed that “The acts of ‘holding the hands of the prosecutrix’ (female victim), or ‘opened zip of the pant’ in the opinion of this Court, does not fit in the definition of ‘sexual assault’ “.
Justice Ganediwala quashed the conviction of the accused man under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
The Supreme Court in November 2021 quashed both the controversial judgments by Justice Ganediwala.
With inputs from agencies
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