Former Bombay High Court Judge Who Passed Controversial POCSO Judgments Moves Plea Seeking Pension

Former additional Bombay High Court Judge Pushpa Ganediwala has moved the Nagpur bench of the High Court for pension applicable to a high court judge.

Ganediwala, who infamously authored the skin-to-skin judgment resigned after she was denied permanent posting as a Bombay High Court judge.

She has challenged the communication dated November 2, 2022 by the HC (original side) registrar stating that she was ineligible for pension of a HC judge and other benefits.

Ganediwala has contended that she was entitled to pension irrespective of whether she retired voluntarily or superannuated after reaching a specific age.

The respondents in the plea include the High Court of judicature of Bombay through its Registrar General, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, State Law and Judiciary Department Secretary and Maharashtra Accountant General in the city.

The entire approach on part of the respondents in denying the pension is arbitrary and therefore, the directives are required to be issued against them for extending pension benefits, Ganediwala has said in her plea.

Ganediwala was appointed as a district judge in 2007 after working as a lawyer for seven years. She also served as joint director of Maharashtra Judicial Academy, Principal District and Sessions judge in the City Civil and Sessions Court, and was also appointed as a High Court Registrar.

She was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court on February 13, 2019, for a term of two years.

In January 2021, Ganediwala delivered two judgments relating to child sex abuse, which attracted widespread criticism for taking the proposition that direct skin to skin contact was necessary for constituting the offence of sexual assault under the POCSO Act.

Following the controversy, the Supreme Court collegium revoked the recommendation made by it on January 20 to make her a permanent judge of the Bombay High Court. A month later, in February 2021, the Collegium recommended the extension of her term as an additional judge for one more year, instead of proposing to make her a permanent judge.

Her controversial judgments were overruled by the Supreme Court last year in an appeal filed by the Attorney General for India. In a verdict delivered in November 2021, a 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court held that what mattered for the offence of sexual assault was "sexual intent" with which the contact was made.

In February 2021, the Union government issued a notification and reduced the extension period to one year. However, since the collegium didn’t extend her tenure as additional judge nor appointed her as permanent judge, Ganediwala resigned on February 11, 2022.

Ganediwala states in her plea that she had worked as an additional High Court judge for nearly three years, and on the cadre of a district judge for 11 years. Her application to the High Court registry for pension was denied after the advocate general’s opinion that since Ganediwala had not retired as High Court judge, she was not entitled for the same rank pension.

The petition will be heard in due course.