New Delhi: In a significant intervention in ethnic conflict-hit Manipur, the Supreme Court Monday proposed a three-member all-women committee of former high court judges to investigate and to look into rehabilitation in Manipur and to “restore a sense of confidence in the rule of law”.
The three retired judges — Justice Gita Mittal of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, Justice Shalini Joshi of the Bombay High Court and Justice Asha Menon of the Delhi High Court — have expertise in dealing with cases of sexual assault, witness protection, and legal aid.
“These judges would look at things, apart from investigation, including relief remedial measures, rehabilitation, compensation, restoration of homes and religious places,” Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud said Monday.
The top court also appointed former Mumbai police commissioner Dattatray Padsalgikar to oversee the investigation process of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the cases of sexual violence in Manipur. Padsalgikar will report directly to the Supreme Court.
The committee to be headed by retired J&K High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal received the apex court’s recommendation as it was hearing a suo motu cognisance case, which it registered after the video of two Kuki women being paraded naked in Manipur went viral. Later, many petitions were also filed asking for judicial intervention to normalise the situation.
This move comes after the top court had summoned Manipur Director General of Police (DGP) Rajiv Singh to be present before it and proposed the judicial committee to look into the matter.
The three judges are distinguished jurists who have made significant contributions to the legal system and society. ThePrint brings you a brief profile of each of them.
Also Read: No one wants to talk about rapes in Manipur. There’s a silence at the heart of the violence
Justice Mittal: Protecting the vulnerable
Justice Mittal is a 1981 law graduate from the University of Delhi and had a distinguished legal practice as a litigator for close to three decades, before being appointed as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 2004.
She is known for initiating the Vulnerable Witness Court Project for trial courts, which provides special facilities and support to children and women who testify in cases of sexual abuse and violence. Its first courtroom was established in 2012.
In 2018, she developed a module to educate students aged between 14 and 18 about sexual abuse and their rights slated to be delivered by the Legal Services Authority.
Justice Mittal has been a part of various institutional committees, including against sexual harassment, working conditions, training programmes committee, among others. She also served on the Governing Council of the National Law University, Delhi since inception.
She was elevated as acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court in 2017, and then the Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court in 2018. She retired in September last year.
Also Read: Politics of power brought Manipur ethnic violence. Time to move to justice
Justice Menon: Champion of gender justice
Born in Kerala, Justice Asha Menon graduated in economics from Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College in 1979, and then pursued law from the Faculty of Law in 1982. She was the youngest to enroll in the Bar in her batch.
She became a judge in 1986 and presided over various courts dealing with diverse matters before being elevated to the Delhi High Court in 2019.
She also served as the Member Secretary of the Delhi Legal Services Authority, which provides free legal aid to the poor and marginalised.
She has assisted in framing various national policies, and has also assisted the Supreme Court in the famous National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) verdict, which affirmed the rights of third genders’, and submitted reports on the implementation of laws related to juvenile justice and trafficking of women.
She retired from the Delhi High Court in September last year. At her farewell programme, Justice Menon said that women may be more emotional, but they should not be apologetic about it.
Also Read:Politics of power brought Manipur ethnic violence. Time to move to justice
Scholar & protector of children: Justice Joshi
Justice Joshi is a graduate from Pune University, and a former judge of the Bombay High Court. She has a specialisation in matters of child-sexual abuse from a Social Legal Perspective and is a British scholar in gender and law.
She has a judicial career spanning over three decades, during which she held important positions, such as the Registrar General of the Bombay High Court and the Principal Judge of the City and Civil Court, Mumbai.
She has also served on special courts for atrocities against women. During her career, she has decided various matters relating to sexual violence, including the Kothewadi gang rape case, the Shakti Mills case, and the Ashram Shala case.
She has also authored a training module and a handbook on human trafficking for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Law Ministry, as well as worked on the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994, which prohibits prenatal diagnostic techniques for determination of the sex of the fetus leading to female feticide. She retired in 2019.
(Akshat Jain is a student at the National Law University, Delhi, and an intern with ThePrint)
(Edited by Richa Mishra)