Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of Bombay HC, who faced flak over controversial judgments, resigns
Mumbai (PTI): Bombay High Court judge Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, who faced flak over a series of judgments that was deemed as controversial for the interpretation of what constitutes as 'sexual assault' under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, has resigned.
Justice Ganediwala, who presently presides at the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court, tendered her resignation on Thursday, a day before her tenure as additional judge was to end as she was neither given extension nor elevation by the Supreme Court collegium, official sources in the high court said.
After her problematic judgments given in January and February 2021, the apex court collegium had withdrawn its recommendation to appoint Justice Ganediwala as a permanent judge and instead extended for one year her tenure as additional judge. The tenure ends on Friday.
This meant that Justice Ganediwala would be demoted back to district judiciary as district sessions judge at the end of her additional judgeship on February 12, 2022.
With neither an extension granted to her tenure as additional judge nor an appointment as permanent judge of the high court, Justice Ganediwala tendered her resignation.
Official sources said her resignation has been accepted.
Justice Ganediwala had come under the scanner for a slew of judgments passed in January and February 2021, which ruled that there has to be 'skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent' in order for the act to be considered as an offence of sexual assault under the POCSO Act and that 'holding hands of a minor girl and opening of zip of his pants' does not fall under the definition of 'sexual assault' under the Act.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
