Sunita Agarwal

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The Honourable
Sunita Agarwal
Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court
Assumed office
23 July 2023
Nominated byDhananjaya Y. Chandrachud
Appointed byDroupadi Murmu
Judge of Allahabad High Court
In office
21 November 2011 – 22 July 2023
Nominated byS. H. Kapadia
Appointed byPratibha Patil
Personal details
Born (1966-04-30) 30 April 1966 (age 57)
NationalityIndian
Alma materAwadh University
Source: [1]

Sunita Agarwal (born 30 April 1966) is an Indian Judge. Presently, she is Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court. She is a former judge of the Allahabad High Court.[1]

Life and education

Agarwal earned a Bachelor of Laws from Awadh University in 1989.[1]

Career

Agarwal enrolled with the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh in 1990, and practiced law in Allahabad before being appointed an additional judge of the Allahabad High Court on 21 November 2011. She became a permanent judge of the court on 6 August 2013, and is expected to retire on 29 April 2028. Currently she is the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court.[1][2]

Judgeship

Agarwal has authored several significant judgments in Indian law, including a notable ruling on the jurisdiction of the Allahabad High Court.[3] She gained public attention after the 2020 Zhenhua Data leak revealed she was one of 30 Indian judges who were subject to mass surveillance by a Chinese data analytics company.[4]

In 2018, Justice Agarwal, along with another judge, Naheed Ara Moonis, was appointed a member of a panel to hear complaints concerning sexual harassment at the Allahabad High Court. The panel was appointed in compliance with the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013.[5][6]

As a judge, Mrs. Agarwal has co-authored a number of significant rulings in Indian constitutional law. In May 2020, she and two other judges established the principle that the High Court of Allahabad could exercise jurisdiction over persons who lived outside their jurisdiction, if the case concerned a cause of action that took place within their jurisdiction.[3] The case established the legal principle that residence cannot be the determining factor in the High Court's exercise of jurisdiction.[3] In March 2020, she was part of a five-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court which established the principle that persons applying for anticipatory bail could directly approach the High Court, and did not need to go through ordinary criminal courts, in 'special circumstances'.[7]

In June 2020, Justice Agarwal and another judge released persons arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police for violation of lockdown regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The persons in question were arrested while distributing food packets to persons affected by the lockdown, and had been accused of causing 'untoward incidents' and violating social distancing protocols, by the police. Mrs. Agarwal directed the police to raise awareness regarding lockdown protocols as an alternative to arrests and detention.[8][9]

In September 2020, the Indian Express disclosed that Justice Agarwal was one of 30 judges, as well as several other political leaders, CEOs, sportsmen and women from India, who were being monitored as part of a mass surveillance project by Zhenhua Data, a Shenzhen-based analytics company. The news of the Zhenhua data leak was widely reported, with several Indian newspapers suggesting that Zhenhua Data had close links to the Chinese government, in the context of the 2020 China-India skirmishes.[10][4][11]

In February 2021, a single-judge bench of Justice Agarwal noted that the discrimination on the basis of a person's sexual orientation and mention of the same as "indulgence in untoward activity" was in violation of the Supreme Court's landmark 2018 verdict that decriminalised homosexuality and upheld the rights of the LGBT community. In view of the same, Justice Agarwal directed the Home Guard Quarters in Uttar Pradesh to reinstate a staff member belonging to the LGBT community whose appointment was cancelled in light of a video which revealed his sexual orientation.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Hon'ble Mrs. Justice Sunita Agarwal". Allahabad High Court.
  2. ^ "Eight new Additional Judges for Allahabad HC". Zee News. 18 November 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b c "Petitioner's residence alone can't determine court's jurisdiction: Allahabad HC". Hindustan Times. 6 May 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  4. ^ a b "China watching: President, PM, key Opposition leaders, Cabinet, CMs, Chief Justice of India…the list goes on". The Indian Express. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  5. ^ "Panel Set up to Probe Sexual Harassment Complaints in Courts". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  6. ^ PTI. "Panel set up to probe sexual harassment complaints in courts". @businessline. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Under special circumstances one can directly approach HC for anticipatory bail Allahabad HC". The Week. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  8. ^ "Make people aware about fallout of lockdown violation : Allahabad HC to police". Outlook India. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  9. ^ Rashid, Omar (24 June 2020). "COVID-19 | Create awareness instead of putting people in jail for norms violation, says Allahabad HC". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  10. ^ "CJI to top regulators, serving and retired: 30 judges on China-monitored list". The Indian Express. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  11. ^ "30 judges on China-monitored list! From CJI to top regulators, serving and retired on dragon's radar". The Financial Express. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
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