Newsmakers | SC’s Manipur appointments: Retired judges with gender justice credentials, ex-Mumbai top cop

Justice Gita Mittal

The first woman to become the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Mittal retired in December 2020. During her tenure, the Centre scrapped Article 370, thereby ending Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in the Union of India. The move affected the court’s functioning.

Justice Mittal was appointed additional judge of Delhi HC in 2004 and served as the acting Chief Justice of the High Court from July 2017 to August 2018. During her tenure, she was instrumental in setting up special courtrooms for vulnerable witnesses — such as children in sexual offence cases — to testify. In March 2018, she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar by the Woman and Child Development Ministry.

Justice Shalini Joshi

Justice Joshi was elevated to the Bombay High Court in 2015 and retired in February 2019.

Justice Joshi has a track record of deciding several high-profile cases involving crimes against women. As a Principal Sessions Judge, she held three convicts guilty in the Shakti Mills photojournalist gang-rape case. She also holds a PhD in laws related to child sexual abuse. Apart from developing training modules for judicial officers on gender offences, she is part of the panel of examiners for PhD in Law at Mumbai University.

Justice Asha Menon

Justice Menon retired from the Delhi High Court in September 2022. She was a District and Sessions Judge in south Delhi before being promoted to the Delhi High Court in May 2019.

In her 33-year career as a district judge, Justice Menon held key judicial and administrative posts, including the Member Secretary of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) in 2012. During her tenure, NALSA moved the Supreme Court on behalf of transgender persons. This led to the SC’s landmark ruling in 2014 recognising the third gender.

Dattatray Padsalgikar

The 1982-batch former IPS officer, known to keep a low profile, has spent a chunk of his career in the Intelligence Bureau (IB). In 2016, then Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis handpicked him to be the Mumbai Police Commissioner.

After two years as the Mumbai Police chief, Padsalgikar became the Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra in 2018 and following his retirement that year, he was appointed a Deputy Lokayukta of the state. In October 2019, Padsalgikar was appointed Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA).

During his police career, the 65-year-old specialised in counter-terror operations and earlier played a critical role in the city, gathering evidence against Pakistani non-state actors in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case. When he headed the Mumbai Police force, Padsalgikar, on being requested that police timings be reduced to eight hours, asked a constable who raised the demand to come up with a proper plan. When the constable came up with one and on finding it implementable, Padsalgikar approved it. In 2017, he replaced constables’ Gandhi topi with the modern visor cap.