- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S Supreme Court Collegium has decided against recommending the name of justice Pushpa V Genediwala as a permanent judge of the Bombay High Court after two of her rulings were closely scrutinised due to a controversial interpretation of sexual assault under the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, The Indian Express reported.
Justice Genediwala is currently serving in the Bombay High Court as an additional judge. The decision of the collegium would mean that she would be relegated to district judiciary.
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According to the Express report, apart from the two controversial rulings of the judge, the collegium also found a troubling “consistent pattern” in her verdicts.
The collegium for deciding appointments in high courts features, besides chief justice of India N V Ramana, justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
Justice Genediwala was born in Paratwada in Amravati district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra in 1969 and became a district judge in 2007.
In 2019, she was appointed as the additional judge of Bombay High Court in Nagpur, also in Maharashtra.
The judge’s name was first recommended by the high court in November 2017 and came up before the Supreme Court collegium September next year along with five other judicial officers from the state.
The collegium, which then comprised the then chief justice Dipak Mishra and justices Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur, deferred Genediwala’s candidature.
The collegium then received two strong notes of dissent from the judges of the high court who were consulted on the appointment – justices Khanwilkar and Chandrachud, the Express report added.
However, she was still appointed in 2019 by a collegium comprising the then chief justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices AK Sikri and SA Bobde.
Two of Genediwala’s rulings concluded that if there is “no direct physical connect, i.e., skin to skin” between the accused and the victim, it will not amount to sexual assault under Section 7 of POCSO Act.
Last month, the top court quashed two judgments of the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, saying that the most important ingredient for sexual assault under the same section is the “sexual intent” and not “skin-to-skin” contact with the minor.
In July, the Bombay High Court recommended names of five additional judges to be appointed as permanent judges. According to a statement by the Supreme Court collegium on Thursday (16), the names of three judges — justices Madhav Jayajirao Jamdar, Amit B Borkar and S Dattatrey Kulkarni – have been recommended for appointment as permanent judges while the tenure of justice Abhay Ahuja has been extended by a year, the Express report said.
