Dr Payal Tadvi suicide case: Bombay High Court upset with abrupt removal of SPP

Mumbai,UPDATED: Aug 11, 2025 18:43 IST

The Bombay High Court on Monday (August 11) expressed shock at the manner in which Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Pradeep Gharat was unceremoniously removed by the Maharashtra government from the Dr Payal Tadvi suicide case.

The bench of Justices Ravindra V. Ghuge and Gautam A. Ankhad said, "Mr Gharat is a seasoned lawyer. These are testing times. These are times when faith in the judiciary is tested by society... Did your government take the initiative to speak to the advocate? Did you not meet him? Or you take action based in your ivory tower. And you write about this of a person who has put in 30–40 years of work and has got so many convictions for the state. He had put in so much hard work to get the convictions in the journalist J. Dey case. The entire trial was conducted by him, and he got convictions for how many accused? Nine!"

The bench was hearing a plea filed by Abeda Tadvi, mother of the late Dr Payal Tadvi, challenging the removal of Gharat from the case by the Maharashtra government. The state has appointed advocate Mahesh Mule as SPP.

Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) S.C. Gavand pointed out that even Mule is a seasoned lawyer and Abeda Tadvi was represented by her own lawyer in the trial. "There was no application by the complainant (Tadvi) to appoint a person and even Mr Gharat's appointment was by the state and not at the complainant's instance," submitted Gavand.

Advocate Lara Jesani, appearing for Abeda Tadvi, however, refuted this by saying that they had also filed an application seeking Gharat's appointment and that his removal was done without providing reasons and was contrary to law. The bench directed Gavand to produce the file containing the correspondence for the appointment of SPP in the case.

During the hearing, the bench also saw that a letter had been written to the government seeking Gharat's removal after he had moved an application in the trial court to add Dr Ching Ling Chiang, former Head of Department (HOD) of the obstetrics and gynaecology department at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, as an accused in the case. Pointing to the letter, the bench said that it was not in good taste. The bench enquired who had addressed this letter, to which Gavand said he would revert and produce the file before the court on the next date.

The bench directed Gavand to speak to Gharat about whether he was willing to be reappointed as SPP in the case, as it had serious doubts about him coming back after what was written about him in the letter.

Gavand will revert on the issue on August 13, after speaking with Gharat, when the bench will hear the plea again.

Tadvi, a postgraduate medical student belonging to a tribal community, allegedly committed suicide on May 22, 2019, after being allegedly subjected to severe harassment and casteist abuse from three senior, upper-caste students at the medical college.

The three seniors – Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Meher, and Ankita Khandelwal – were named as accused by the Mumbai Police and arrested in May 2019 under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Maharashtra Prohibition of Ragging Act. They are currently out on bail.

The Tadvi family had written a letter to the Chief Minister's Office seeking Gharat's reappointment as SPP till the trial concludes. The trial in the 2019 case is yet to begin.

- Ends