Bela Madhurya Trivedi (born on 10 June 1960)[1] is a judge of the Supreme Court of India. Before being appointed a judge, She served as the law secretary to Modi Government in Gujarat, when Narendra Modi was the then chief minister.[2] after that she had been a judge of the Gujarat High Court from 2016 to 2021.[3][1] She formerly served as the additional judge of the Gujarat High Court from 17 February 2011 to 27 June 2011 and later served as the additional judge of the Rajasthan High Court.[3][4][5][6]

Controversies

Handling opposition Parties Sensitive Cases

Over the past few months, several cases have been reassigned to benches that include Justice Trivedi or others, contrary to regulations. According to the ‘Supreme Court Handbook on Practice and Procedure and Office Procedure’, cases should remain with the senior judge who first received them or a judge who is overseeing a related case."[7]

1. Umar Khalid’s bail plea 2. Petitions challenging provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)1967 3. A petition connected with the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) probe in a disproportionate assets case against deputy chief minister of Karnataka D K Shivakumar 4. Supreme Court Denies Bail To AAP Leader Satyendar Jain [8]

Senior Advocates on 'Arbitrary' Allocation

The issue of reassignment of cases to different bench of the Supreme Court has been flagged by a number of senior lawyers before the CJI. Prashant Bhushan Writes to SC Registrar on 'Arbitrary' Allocation of Cases to Justice Bela M. Trivedi[9] "This case was part heard before Justice AS Bopanna, now the case is listed before Justice Bela Trivedi", Singhvi told CJI asking him to look at the case papers again.[10]

On 7 December 2023, a self-assessment report published by a website 'article-14.com', alleged that there have been irregularities in allocating politically sensitive cases to the bench led by Justice Bela Trivedi.[2][11]

References


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