Justice Gita Mittal named acting CJ of Delhi HC

New Delhi: Justice Gita Mittal has been appointed as the acting Chief Justice of the Delhi high court.

She will assume charge with effect from April 14, a day after Justice Gorla Rohini, the current Chief Justice, retires. A notification in this regard was issued on Wednesday.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by article 223 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Kumari Justice Gita Mittal, the senior-most judge of Delhi high court, to perform the duties of the office of the chief justice of that high court with effect from April 14th, 2017, consequent upon the retirement of Shrimati Justice Gorla Rohini, chief justice, Delhi high court,” the notification stated.

Justice Mittal graduated from Campus Law Centre in 1981. She was appointed as additional judge of the Delhi high court in 2004 and was made a permanent judge in 2006. Since August 2008, Justice Mittal has been a member of the governing council of the National Law University, Delhi. She is also a member of the governing council of the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, since 2013 and has been nominated to its administrative committee. She is presently chairing the court committees on the Delhi high court’s Mediation and Conciliation Centre as well as the committee monitoring the Implementation of Judicial Guidelines for Dealing with Cases of Sexual Offences and Child Witnesses.

Justice Mittal’s judicial pronouncements include judgements on compensation for riot victims; right to shelter of internally displaced persons; right to marriage of a lady member of the Armed Force among others; the appointment of a person suffering from ‘Disorder of Sexual Differentiation’ into the para-military force; principles which would govern DNA testing in paternity issues in the absence of statutory provisions; the conducting of trials in cases involving sexual offences and recording of statements of the victims and guidelines for the same; governance of sports and sports bodies; issues involving termination of service because of a pregnancy; right to workers in the labour force; trade-mark litigation; privacy laws; contours of the right to privacy of a public figure; revocation of passport – when permissible; constitutionality of enhancement of court fee; and public interest, communication and commercial disputes of a wide nature.

She has spearheaded the Vulnerable Witness Court Project in the trial courts in Delhi leading to the first such court room in India being inaugurated on 16th September, 2012, and the second on 11th September, 2013.