Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of Bombay High Court who had authored the infamous skin-to-skin judgment judgment, has resigned from office. .Ganediwala, an additional judge of the Bombay High Court was neither recommended for permanent judgeship by the Collegium nor was her tenure as additional judge extended. Thus, her tenure was set to expire on February 12 this year but she chose to resign before that.According to sources, she is planning to pursue arbitration and litigation before Supreme Court and High Court..Justice Ganediwala's controversial skin-to-skin judgment delivered in January last year in a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO Act) case, had received lot of flak.Interestingly, she had delivered a slew of controversial judgments that same month..In a judgment delivered on January 14, 2021, she had reversed a conviction order after noting that there was nothing supporting the prosecution's case for rape (Jageshwar Wasudeo Kawle v. State of Maharashtra).On January 15, 2021 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. State of Maharashtra).A third judgment was delivered on January 19 in which she ruled 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 POCSO (Satish Ragde v. State of Maharashtra).This third ruling which came to be known as skin-to-skin judgment had caused an uproar, with the Supreme Court eventually overturning the same.Her tenure as additional judge was set to expire in February last year but was extended for one more year. However, no such extension was granted this year.
Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of Bombay High Court who had authored the infamous skin-to-skin judgment judgment, has resigned from office. .Ganediwala, an additional judge of the Bombay High Court was neither recommended for permanent judgeship by the Collegium nor was her tenure as additional judge extended. Thus, her tenure was set to expire on February 12 this year but she chose to resign before that.According to sources, she is planning to pursue arbitration and litigation before Supreme Court and High Court..Justice Ganediwala's controversial skin-to-skin judgment delivered in January last year in a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO Act) case, had received lot of flak.Interestingly, she had delivered a slew of controversial judgments that same month..In a judgment delivered on January 14, 2021, she had reversed a conviction order after noting that there was nothing supporting the prosecution's case for rape (Jageshwar Wasudeo Kawle v. State of Maharashtra).On January 15, 2021 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. State of Maharashtra).A third judgment was delivered on January 19 in which she ruled 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 POCSO (Satish Ragde v. State of Maharashtra).This third ruling which came to be known as skin-to-skin judgment had caused an uproar, with the Supreme Court eventually overturning the same.Her tenure as additional judge was set to expire in February last year but was extended for one more year. However, no such extension was granted this year.
