Bombay HC admits pleas of sacked JJB members in Pune Porsche case
The juvenile was granted bail shortly after the incident on relatively lenient conditions, including writing a 300-word essay on road safety, drawing widespread criticism.
The Bombay High Court has admitted writ petitions filed by former Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) members L N Danavade and Kavita Thorat, who were dismissed by the Maharashtra government after granting bail to a minor involved in the fatal Porsche crash in Pune.
Their dismissal in October last year followed a departmental inquiry by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Department, which cited violations of procedure and abuse of authority under the Juvenile Justice Act.
The case is linked to the May 19, 2024, accident in Kalyaninagar, where a 17-year-old, allegedly driving a Porsche under the influence of alcohol, struck and killed two IT professionals. The juvenile was granted bail shortly after the incident on relatively lenient conditions, including writing a 300-word essay on road safety, drawing widespread criticism.
Challenging the government’s decision, Danavade and Thorat moved the High Court through their lawyer, Harshavardhan Pawar, arguing that their removal was “Illegal”. On April 23, the court admitted their petitions and issued a notice to the state, seeking a response from the WCD Department. A copy of the court order was made available late on Thursday on the HC website. The next hearing is scheduled for June 18.
A bench of Justice AS Chandurkar and MM Sathaye in their order noted that the contentions urged the petitioner are that after submitting a reply to the Show Cause Notice dated 14th June 2024, an enquiry was held in the matter, which fact is reflected in the impugned notification dated 8th October 2024.
“However, a copy of that enquiry report was not supplied to the petitioner. It is thus submitted that the action of terminating the appointment of the petitioner as a member of the Juvenile Justice Board, Pune, is illegal. 2. Issue notice to the respondents, returnable on 18th June 2025. Learned Additional Government Pleader waives notice for respondent no.1,” the Bench noted.
As of now, the juvenile has been released from the observation home, while nine others—including his parents, Vishal Agarwal, two Sassoon Hospital doctors, staff member Atul Ghatkamble, two alleged intermediaries, and three others—remain in judicial custody.