Delhi-based lawyer Saurabh Kirpal said that he believed his sexual orientation was only stumbling block that prevented him from being made Delhi High Court judge. “The aim was to have diversity on the bench. I really believe it could change the lives of so many LGBT people in India,’’ he said.
Saurabh Kirpal's name was submitted thrice since 2017 by the Delhi High Court, but, the Supreme Court’s appointment panel differed from naming him all three times.
Kirpal has been one of the lawyers who successfully challenged Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code in the Supreme Court in 2018. Kirpal alleged that him being gay is the only reason he was blocked from being a judge in the Delhi High Court.
“This is all mired in a cloud of innuendo. The problem is that the collegium system is opaque and because it is opaque, I cannot say what is the reason and what is there in the mind of judges,” Kirpal said.
Kirpal, who, in 2017 authored ‘Sex and the Supreme Court: How the Law is Upholding the Dignity of the Indian Citizen’, is a graduate of St Stephens College, Delhi. After which, he pursued his undergraduate degree in law from Oxford University and masters in law from Cambridge University. Kirpal has practised in the Supreme Court for over two decades and his area of work includes constitutional, civil and commercial law.
In an interview with Global Voices, Kirpal has said, “India does not have a comprehensive anti-discrimination code. While the Constitution prohibits discrimination, that injunction only applies to the government and its instrumentalities. "
48-year-old Kirpal was first asked whether he wanted to become an HC judge in April 2017 and filled a form as part of his formal consent.
The proposal that was cleared by the high court collegium which comprised justices Geeta Mittal, Sanjeev Khanna and Ravindra Bhatt, got at the Intelligence Bureau and Supreme Court for further clearances.
Kirpal’s name had come up for evaluation twice between September 2018 and April 2019, but the decision was deferred each time.
"My professional competence was known to the high court and the Supreme Court collegium and my case for elevation was presumably not deferred for that reason. Media reports seemed to indicate the issue might have been the nationality of my partner who is Swiss,” Kirpal was quoted as saying in an Indian Express report.
