Ex-SC judge who dismissed petitions against ‘hijab’ verdict appointed NDIAC chairperson

Justice Gupta, who demitted office on October 14, was part of a bench which had delivered a split verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the March 15 judgement of the Karnataka High Court.

New Delhi: Former Supreme Court judge Hemant Gupta has been appointed as the chairperson of New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (NDIAC), a personnel ministry order said.

The NDIAC was established for the purpose of creating an independent and autonomous regime for institutionalised arbitration.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Justice Hemant Gupta (retired) as NDIAC chairperson and that of Ganesh Chandru and Anant Vijay Palli as its part-time members, the order said.

Justice Gupta, who demitted office on October 14, was part of a bench which had delivered a split verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the March 15 judgement of the Karnataka High Court refusing to lift the ban on wearing of hijab in educational institutions in the state.

Justice Gupta had dismissed the petitions against the high court verdict upholding the ban on hijab.

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, another judge of the bench, had differed with Justice Gupta saying students have the right to wear hijab.

Justice Gupta was elevated as an apex court judge on November 2, 2018.

Son of former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Hayana High Court Jitender Vir Gupta, he was born on October 17, 1957, and was enrolled as an advocate in July 1980. He also worked as additional advocate general of Punjab from 1997 to 1999.

He was appointed a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 2, 2002.

Justice Gupta was a member of the Computer Committee of the Punjab and Haryana High Court for more than 10 years and this period saw a complete computerisation of the high court including digitisation of the entire records of judicial files and developing a mechanism to scan the freshly filed case, introduction of the case management system, launching of an e-diary etc.

He took over as a judge of the Patna High Court on February 8, 2016 and was appointed as the acting Chief Justice of that high court on October 29, 2016.

Justice Gupta was appointed as Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on March 18, 2017.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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