Saurabh Kirpal, senior advocate, is the son of 31st Chief Justice of India, Bhupinder Nath Kirpal. He is an alumnus of The Modern School, New Delhi and St Stephens College, Delhi University. A top cricketer, he represented both his school and college. Saurabh Kirpal briefly worked with the United Nations in Geneva. He has been practicing law in India for over two decades. His areas of specialisation include civil, commercial and constitutional law.
Saurabh Kirpal is openly homosexual and speaks for LGBTQ rights. He has also authored a book called ‘Sex and the Supreme Court’. His partner Nicolas Germain Bachmann is a foreign national and a Swiss Human Rights activist.
He was first recommended for elevation as a judge by the Delhi High Court
Collegium on October 13, 2017. Thereafter, the consideration to elevate Kirpal
was deferred thrice by the Supreme Court Collegium – once on September 4,
2018, for the second time on January 16, 2019, and lastly, on April
1, 2019.
“The Supreme Court Collegium, in its meeting held on 11th November, 2021, has approved the proposal for elevation of Shri Saurabh Kirpal, advocate, as judge in the Delhi High Court,” read the collegium’s resolution uploaded on the top court’s website on Monday evening.
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The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana took the call on Kirpal’s name despite repeated objections by the government which had red-flagged his elevation claiming conflict of interest as his partner is European and works with the Swiss Embassy.
The delay in recommending Kirpal was widely perceived in legal circles to be due to his sexual orientation.
Kirpal had said in an interview in April, “The fact that my partner of 20 years is a person of foreign origin is a security risk is such a specious reason that it leaves one to believe that it is not the whole truth. That is why I believe my sexuality is the reason why my candidature has not been considered for elevation as a judge.”
If appointed, Mr Kirpal would be India's first openly gay judge.