Justice Bela M Trivedi, the eleventh woman to serve on the Supreme Court since its establishment 75 years ago, retired on Friday after completing a tenure of three and a half years.
Born on June 10, 1960, in Patan, North Gujarat, Justice Trivedi practised law in the Gujarat High Court for a decade before being appointed as a judge in the City Civil and Sessions Court in Ahmedabad on July 10, 1995.
She held various administrative roles, including Registrar (vigilance) in the high court and Law Secretary in the Gujarat government. She was appointed as a judge of the Gujarat High Court on February 17, 2011, later transferred to the Rajasthan High Court in June 2011, and repatriated to Gujarat in February 2016 before her elevation to the apex court.
She held the rare distinction of rising through the ranks from a trial court judge, beginning her judicial career in July 1995 at a City Civil and Sessions Court in Gujarat, to the apex court. Notably, at the time of her appointment as a trial judge, her father was already serving as a judge in the same court. This unique father-daughter Judge pairing was featured in the 1996 edition of the Limca Book of Records.
Justice Trivedi was appointed to the Supreme Court on August 31, 2021, during a historic swearing-in of nine judges, including three women, marking the highest number of judges inducted on a single day.
Following tradition, she participated in the ceremonial bench presided over by Chief Justice B R Gavai on her last day. Throughout her tenure, she contributed to several significant rulings. In November 2022, she was part of a five-judge Constitution Bench that upheld (3:2 majority) the 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), introduced in 2019, which excludes SC/ST/OBC categories.
In August 2024, she sat on a seven-judge Constitution Bench that ruled, by a 6:1 majority, that states have the constitutional authority to make sub-classifications within Scheduled Castes to extend reservations to more backward sub-groups. Justice Trivedi authored the sole dissent, arguing that only Parliament has the power to modify the SC list and states lack the authority to alter it.
In another notable decision in November 2021, a bench including Justice Trivedi held that any physical contact with a child made with sexual intent qualifies as sexual assault under Section 7 of the POCSO Act, emphasizing intent over skin-to-skin contact. This ruling overturned two controversial Bombay High Court decisions under the same Act.
Justice Trivedi also delivered a judgment clarifying that the moratorium under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code does not bar the attachment of assets under the Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act.
Most recently, on May 15, a bench led by her cleared the path for a Uttar Pradesh government initiative to redevelop the Shri Banke Bihari Temple corridor in Mathura, intended to facilitate devotees.
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