Mumbai: The Bombay High Court's judge Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, who had delivered two controversial verdicts in sexual assault cases, on Saturday took oath as the high court's additional judge for one more year.
Justice Ganediwala's earlier tenure as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court ended on Friday. Justice Nitin Jamdar, the senior most judge at the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, administered the oath of office to her.
The oath-taking ceremony was attended virtually by the Bombay High Court's Chief Justice Dipankar Datta.
Last month, the Supreme Court collegium had withdrawn its approval to a proposal for the appointment Justice Ganediwala as a permanent judge of the court following her two controversial verdicts.
The cllegium had recommended that she be given a fresh term as an additional judge for two years.
However, the government issued a notification on Friday saying she has been given a fresh term as an additional judge for one year. Additional judges are usually appointed for two years before being elevated as permanent judges.
The decision was taken after the judge faced flak for her interpretation of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
Justice Ganediwala had recently acquitted a man accused of groping a 12-year-old girl's breast because he did not make any "skin-to-skin contact" with the minor and days earlier, ruled that holding the hands of a five-year-old girl and unzipping the trousers do not amount to "sexual assault" under the POCSO Act.
On January 27, the Supreme Court stayed the Bombay High Court order acquitting the man after Attorney General K K Venugopal said the order would set a dangerous precedent.
The collegium headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, at a meeting held on January 20, had okayed the proposal for making Justice Ganediwala a permanent judge.
Besides the CJI, justices N V Ramana and R F Nariman are part of the three-member collegium, which takes decisions with regard to high court judges.
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Ahmedabad, May 2 (PTI): Gujarat Titans inched closer to sealing a playoff spot with a 38-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL match here on Friday.
Invited to bat, skipper Shubman Gill scored a 38-ball 76 before Jos Buttler slammed 64 off 37 deliveries for the Titans.
In reply, Abhishek Sharma (74) gave SRH a solid start but GT bowlers stopped the visitors at 186 for 6.
Brief Scores:
Gujarat Titans 224 for 6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 76, Jos Buttler 64; Jaydev Unadkat 3/35).
Sunrisers Hyderbad 186 for 6 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 74; Mohammed Siraj 2/33, Prasidh Krishna 2/19).