PM Modi security breach: As SC appoints ex-judge Indu Malhotra to head probe panel, a look at her illustrious career

Two days after the Supreme Court ordered for the set-up of a committee to probe the security lapse which happened during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Punjab on 5 January, it has announced that former apex court judge Justice Indu Malhotra will help the panel.

As per the Supreme Court, the panel will have Justice Indu Malhotra (retired), Director General of National Investigation Agency, Director General of Security of Punjab and Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court as its members.

According to LiveLaw, the court opined that the “questions cannot be left to one-sided enquiry” and a judicially trained mind needs to oversee the probe.

“…these questions can’t be left to one-sided inquiries. A judicially trained independent mind duly assisted with officers well acquired with security issues and registrar general of HC who seized records would be best placed, to submit a comprehensive report”, CJI NV Ramana read out the operative portion of the order.

The apex court also said that the panel will inquire into causes of the security breach, persons responsible for it and the measures to be taken in future for preventing such security breaches of VVIPs.

The order came based on a plea filed by an NGO ‘Lawyer’s Voice’ seeking a probe into the security lapse during prime minister’s trip.

The prime minister’s convoy was stranded on a flyover due to a blockade by protesters in Ferozepur last week. The incident forced the PM to cancel his rally and other events planned in poll-bound Punjab.

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So, who is Indu Malhotra?

A daughter of a well-known advocate, late Om Prakash Malhotra, Indu enrolled in the Bar Council of Delhi in 1983, and qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1988.

She was elevated to the Supreme Court on 27 April, 2018 and retired three years later on 13 March 2021.

In 2018, Indu Malhotra made history when she became the first woman lawyer to be directly elevated to the top court.
In her short tenure, Justice Malhotra was on Constitution benches dealing with far-reaching issues of constitutional importance as well examining allegations of sexual harassment against the then Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi.

She was part of a Constitution bench to decide the entry of women to Kerala’s Sabarimala temple, the validity of Section 377 (same-sex relationship) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and the validity of Section 497 (adultery) of the IPC.

She was the junior-most judge on the bench in these cases and in all barring one, she wrote her separate concurring opinions. In the Sabarimala case, she wrote the dissent.

Delivering her order on Section 377, she had recognised the agony and suffering that the LBTQ community had undergone due to the criminalisation of their sexual orientation.

“History owes an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries,” she had written.

In the ‘contentious’ Sabarimala case, Justice Malhotra had the lone dissenting judgment in favour of Ayyappa devotees by refusing to lift the restriction on women between the ages of 10 to 50 years from entering the temple.

Malhotra was also a member of various committees constituted by the Supreme Court from time to time. In 2013, she was part of the 10-member Vishaka Committee that dealt with complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace.

She also had framed guidelines for the Good Samaritan law for protection of those who help victims of road accidents.

With inputs from agencies

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