NEW DELHI: After she retired from Supreme Court, Justice Ranjana Desai has actually had no time at all to unwind, having actually been asked to head 6 commissions on a variety of problems -from electrical power to delimitation and consistent civil code to modification of pay scales for main civil servant.Justice Desai, 76, who belonged to the bench that supported the death sentence for among the 26/11 Mumbai horror attack stars, Ajmal Kasab, is extremely concerned in legal circles for her stability and understanding of criminal law. Justice Desai became part of the bench led by Justice Aftab Alam which had in Sept 2012 dismissed CBI’s plea for cancellation of Amit Shah’s bail in the Sohrabuddin phony encounter case while moving the trial from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
She retired from Supreme Court on October 29, 2014.A little over a month after her three-year stint, she was designated as chairperson of appellate tribunal for electrical energy, a position she held till Nov 30, 2017. 7 months later on, she was asked to chair the advance judgment authority (earnings tax). She held this position till Oct 29, 2019. While heading ARA, she was made chairperson of the eight-member Lokpal search committee in 2018.
The committee was reconstituted in Aug 2023 with Justice Desai as chairperson.After ditching Article 370, Union govt had in March 2020 designated her as chairperson of the delimitation commission. She continued because position till May 2022, when the commission sent the last report for J&K, based upon which assembly surveys were held.In May 2022, Uttarakhand govt made up a committee of specialists under chairpersonship of Justice Desai to prepare the UCC for the state.
A month later on, Union govt selected her as chairperson of Press Council of India. After she sent her report on Uttarakhand UCC, Gujarat govt in Feb this year made her the head of a five-member committee to examine the need of UCC in the state.Even as she continues as PCI chairperson, Union govt has actually designated her as chairperson of the Eighth Central Pay Commission. It has actually been offered 18 months to make its suggestions on pay scales, pay modification and pensionary advantages of main govt workers.