Justice Pushpa Ganediwala Takes Oath as an Additional Judge of Bombay High Court

Justice Pushpa Ganediwala took oath for one more year as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court. She has notably passed a series of controversial judgments on the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act 

Justice Pushpa Ganediwala started her judicial career as the District Judge in 2007 and was elevated as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court in 2019.  

On 20th January, the Collegium approved the proposal to appoint the Justice Ganediwala as a permanent judge and passed a resolution to that effect. But it came to the Collegium’s notice that Justice Ganediwala handed down three acquittals under the POCSO Act. All these acquittals were made within a week and were in separate cases. 

On 14th January she delivered a judgment in which she reversed a conviction order after noting that nothing was supporting the prosecution's case for rape (Jageshwar Wasudeo Kawle v. the State of Maharashtra). Then on 15th January, she held 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 (Libnus v. the State of Maharashtra). On 19th January a third judgment was delivered by her which caused an outrage in people. This judgment said that the act of pressing the breast of a 12-year old child without removing her top will not fall within the definition of ‘sexual assault’ under section 7 of the POCSO Act (Libnus v. the State of Maharashtra). 

The rulings that are mentioned above persuaded the Supreme Court Collegium to reconsider its recommendation of 20th January in which it had agreed to make Justice Ganediwala a permanent judge of the High Court.  

On Friday, the confirmation came of Justice Ganediwala continuation as an additional judge. The senior-most Judge at the Nagpur bench, Justice Nitin Jamdar administered the oath of Justice Ganediwala and the Chief Justice, Dipankar Datta virtually attended the oath-taking ceremony. The ceremony was a live telecast on YouTube from the Nagpur Bench of the High Court.