Image: Times of India
Among the files returned by the Centre to the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation as High Court judges, includes Senior Advocate Saurabh Kirpal who had openly declared that he is homosexual. Kirpal happens to be the son of former Chief Justice of India BN Kirpal. His recommendation by the collegium is among the 9 files which were reiterated, yet returned by the Centre.
In November last year, the news had broken out that Kirpal was recommended by the collegium to be elevated as judge of the Delhi High Court, making him the first openly gay candidate to be considered for becoming a judge of a High Court.
The Centre returning his files makes this the 5th time his candidature being deferred. The first time his name was recommended was in 2017 by the Delhi High Court Collegium then headed by Justice Gita Mittal. But the government reportedly shot down the proposal citing intelligence reports of Kirpal’s partner being a Swiss national. Kirpal’s partner Nicholas Bachmann is a human rights activist. Kirpal’s name was recommended again, and the recommendation was deferred in September 2018, January 2019, and April 2019.
In November last year, then CJI NV Ramana after consultation with two other senior members of the judiciary, Justices UU Lalit and AM Khanwilkar, paved the path for recommending Kirpal’s elevation.
It was touted that his recommendation was not accepted by the Centre due to security concerns over his partner being a foreign national. However, Kirpal has refuted these claims in an interview a couple of years ago. “Justice Vivian Bose, one of India’s greatest judges, in the Supreme Court who had an American wife,” he said, also giving examples of former Chief Justices Ravi Dhawan and Patnaik who also had foreign nationals as wives. “So having a foreign partner surely can be no grave security risk to the post of a High Court judge,” he said.
Who is Saurabh Kirpal?
Saurabh Kirpal is a lawyer who has vociferously advocated for the rights of the LGBTQIA community. He was a part of the team of lawyers, including Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy, that was at the forefront of the litigation that led to the historic reading down of Section 377 on September 6, 2018. Kirpal was counsel for Navtej Johar and Ritu Dalmia, two of the main petitioners in the case. The court had on that day decriminalised consensual sex between two adults of the same sex.
He is the son of former Supreme Court Chief Justice BN Kirpal. He has a B.Sc (Hons) from Delhi’s prestigious St. Stephen’s College, following which he read law at Oxford University. He holds a Masters in Law from the University of Cambridge. He has previously worked with the United Nations in Geneva. He has also served as a junior to Mukul Rohatgi. Kirpal has practiced law for over two decades. In March this year, Kirpal was designated as a senior advocate at the Delhi High Court.
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