Outrageous Orders In Sexual Assault Has Cost The Judge Her Permanent Posting In Bombay HC

In what is being described as an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court Collegium has withdrawn in its recommendation to the Centre to make, Justice Pushpa Virendra Ganediwala a permanent judge of the Bombay HC.

Justice Ganediwala, an additional judge in Bombay high court, had courted controversy recently for her shocking acquittal orders in POCSO cases.

Maharashtra Judicial Academy

In the first case, on January 15, Justice Ganediwala, had reversed the conviction of a POCSO accused stating that the testimony of the rape complainant did not inspire the confidence of this Court.

Justice Ganediwala reversed the conviction order on the grounds that the offence of rape against the accused could not be established beyond a reasonable doubt.

The very next day Justice Ganediwala, made another shocking acquittal saying that the act of holding hands of a minor or the zip of the pants of the accused being open at the relevant time, does not amount to sexual assault as defined under Section 7 of the POCSO Act.

File Photo

Days later in a third ruling, which has been the most controversial yet, she ruled that the act of pressing the breast of a child aged 12 years without removing her top will not fall within the definition of ¡®sexual assault¡¯ under Section 7 of POCSO.

The ruling had left many shocked and the Supreme Court had stayed the order, which caused massive outrage.

Even after her series of shocking orders, the SC collegium headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde had sent its recommendation to the Law Ministry to appoint Justice Ganediwala as a permanent judge of Bombay HC.

Bombay Bar Association

However, after the controversy, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, both hailing from Maharashtra who had raised reservations against making Justice Ganediwala a permanent judge convinced one of the members to withdraw the recommendation.

Justice Pushpa Virendra Ganediwala was due for her appointment as a permanent judge after completing two years as an additional judge, but her recent controversial judgments scuttled her chances.

Bombay Bar Association

She was a panel advocate for various banks and insurance companies and was also an honorary lecturer in various colleges of Amravati and gave lectures to the MBA and LLM students of the Amravati University.

She was directly appointed as a district judge in 2007 and was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court on February 13, 2019.