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Bombay high court judge who delivered controversial ‘skin-to-skin’ verdict resigns – Hindustan Times

NAGPUR: Bombay high court judge, justice Pushpa Ganediwala, who delivered controversial rulings last year on “skin-to-skin contact” in the sexual assault of a minor, has resigned in view of the Supreme Court collegium’s decision not to make her a permanent judge, people familiar with the matter said.

Her resignation came right before her term as an additional judge in the Nagpur bench of the high court was to end on February 12, after which the 52-year-old judge would have reverted to being a district judge in Maharashtra.

Justice Ganediwala was first appointed as additional judge on February 13, 2019, and was recommended in January 2021 to be made a permanent judge. But before the government could process the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium, her controversial judgment on “skin-to-skin contact” in a sexual assault case emerged.

In an unprecedented move, the Supreme Court on January 25, 2021, recalled its recommendation. She was later appointed as additional judge for one more year. In December 2021 when the collegium took a relook at the case, it decided against her appointment.

Justice Ganediwala courted controversies after a series of her judgments on the interpretation of the POCSO Act came under severe criticism. In a January 19, 2021 ruling, she held that groping a minor without removing her clothes was not a case of sexual assault but only of molestation, since there was no ‘skin-to-skin’ contact. This judgment was stayed by a Supreme Court bench, led by the CJI on a request by the government’s top law officer attorney general KK Venugopal. In another judgment on January 15, 2021, the woman judge had ruled that holding the hands of a minor and unzipping one’s trousers in front of her does not amount to “sexual assault.”

Justice Ganediwala (52), a native of Paratwada in neighbouring Amravati district where she practised in the district courts, was directly appointed as a district judge in 2007 and served on the city civil court in Mumbai and the district family courts in Nagpur before she was elevated as the Principal District and Session Judge in Nagpur. She was appointed as the Registrar-General of the high court before her elevation as an additional judge of the Bombay High Court.

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Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bombay-high-court-judge-who-delivered-controversial-skin-to-skin-verdict-resigns-101644613724279.html