Nagpur: Under sharp criticism from the women and child rights groups for her controversial judgments, Justice Pushpa Ganediwala on Tuesday found some support from the city lawyers practising in Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court.
A group of lawyers, including some well-known faces, have drafted a representation “To whomsoever it may be concern” requesting the Supreme Court collegium to reconsider its decision to withdraw recommendation to the central government to make her a permanent judge of Bombay HC.
The lawyers are taking signatures on it from members of the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) and District Bar Association (DBA) members. It would be then dispatched to President of India Ramnath Kovind, Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others.
The decision to withdraw the recommendation was taken by the collegium on January 28 after her highly debatable verdicts were published in the media. The collegium had recommended her as permanent judge on January 20 but at that time her judgments weren’t published.
Coming out in support of the 52-year-old judge, the lawyers clarified that the representation wasn’t a condonation of her January 19 judgment where she ruled that skin-to-skin contact was must for establishing charges under the Prevention of Crime Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012. She modified the sentence of accused, who was sent for three years in jail under the POCSO Act, to one year under Section 354 for outraging modesty.
The verdict led to massive furore in judiciary with women and child rights activist up in the arms against the judge. Next day, attorney general KK Venugopoal pointed it out to the CJI led bench stressing on the need to stay it immediately. Else, he warned it would set a dangerous precedent across the nation. SC then stayed the verdict on January 27.
According to the lawyers, the collegium had overreacted to the news by withdrawing its recommendation of Justice Ganediwala, who hails from Paratwada in Amravati district of Vidarbha.