JUSTICE BELA M. TRIVEDI
Date of Birth : 10-06-1960
Assumed Office : 31-08-2021
Retires on: 09-06-2025
No. of Judgements authored : 79
JUDGEMENTS:
- Mukesh v State of Tripura
UAPA Charges Related to Tripura Violence
- Janhit Abhiyan v Union of India
EWS Reservation
- State of Punjab v Davinder Singh
Validity of Sub-Classification Within Reserved Categories
Justice Bela Trivedi was born on June 10, 1960, in Patan, Gujarat. Her schooling took place in various locations, as her family frequently relocated due to her father’s judicial service. She later pursued higher education at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, where she earned degrees in B.Com and LL.B.
In 1983, Justice Trivedi enrolled with the Bar Council at Gujarat , embarking on a legal career that spanned nearly a decade. She specialized in civil and constitutional law, establishing herself as a skilled advocate.
Justice Trivedi’s judicial career began on July 10, 1995, when she was appointed as a Judge at the City Civil and Sessions Court in Ahmedabad. At the time, her father was also serving as a judge in the same court, a unique circumstance that earned them a mention in the 1996 edition of the Limca Book of Records as “father-daughter judges in the same court.”
During her tenure as a judicial officer, Justice Trivedi held several notable positions. She served as Registrar-Vigilance at the Gujarat High Court and as the Law Secretary to the Gujarat Government from 2004 to 2006. She also served as a judge in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court and was a Special Judge in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case.
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Justice Trivedi’s elevation to the Gujarat High Court came on February 17, 2011. In June 2011, she was transferred to the Jaipur Bench of the Rajasthan High Court, where she was confirmed as a permanent judge in February 2013. In February 2016, she was repatriated to the Gujarat High Court, further strengthening her association with the judiciary in her home state. Justice Trivedi is said to retire on 9 June 2025 after a tenure of 3.75 years.
Notable judgements
- Attorney General for India v. Satish (2021)
Justice Bela Trivedi was part of a three-judge Bench led by former Chief Justice U.U. Lalit, which overturned the Bombay High Court’s controversial ruling that “skin-to-skin” contact was necessary to constitute sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO). The Bench held that interpreting “skin” and “touch” narrowly under Section 7 of POCSO would lead to an “absurd interpretation” of the law, excluding various forms of physical assault made through instruments from the Act’s ambit.
- State of Punjab v. Davinder Singh (2024)
In a landmark case on sub-classification within Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) for reservations, Justice Trivedi delivered a dissenting opinion against the majority decision of a seven-judge Constitution Bench. She argued that SCs and STs constitute a “homogeneous class” and that sub-classification violates the intent of Article 341 of the Constitution.
Justice Trivedi emphasized that the Presidential List of SCs is final and cannot be modified by states to give preferential treatment to certain sub-groups. She cautioned that even though sub-classification does not technically alter the Presidential List, it effectively “tinkers” with it. Moreover, she noted that the Indra Sawhney judgment permitted sub-classification only within OBCs under Article 16(4), not within SCs or STs.
- Janhit Abhiyan v. Union of India (2022)
In a concurring opinion, Justice Trivedi upheld the 10% EWS reservation introduced by the 103rd Constitutional Amendment. She affirmed the validity of economic criteria for reservations and clarified that excluding SCs, STs, and OBCs from EWS quotas was constitutionally permissible. She also noted that EWS reservations did not breach the 50% ceiling set in Indra Sawhney (1992).
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