NAGPUR: Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, whose recent verdicts invited criticism, has been given only a one-year extension as additional judge after the Supreme Court collegium refused to elevate her as a permanent judge of the Bombay high court. Her term ended on Saturday.
Senior administrative judge at Nagpur bench, Nitin Jamdar, administered the oath to her in the presence of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta who attended the ceremony online from Mumbai. The collegium had recommended two years’ extension to Ganediwala after withdrawing its earlier suggestion to make her a permanent judge. However, the Union law and justice ministry refused it, citing her judgments.
A notification was issued on Friday by joint secretary to the government of India, Rajinder Kashyap. “… the President of India is pleased to appoint Pushpa Ganediwala to be an additional judge of the Bombay high court for a period of one year with effect from February 13, 2021,” it reads. Subsequently, President Ramnath Kovind and Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari cleared her name for the extension.
A group of lawyers, meanwhile, have already written to the President and the Chief Justice of India to reconsider their decision of withdrawing the SC collegium’s recommendation against Ganediwala’s elevation as the permanent judge.
After starting her judicial innings as a district judge, Ganediwala, 51, was appointed as additional judge on February 8, 2019. Earlier, her name was in reckoning for HC’s additional judge in 2018, but wasn’t considered after a few judges made adverse remarks that led to the SC collegium deferring her appointment.