Making it clear that law will take its course in the issue of sexual harassment allegations levelled by a law intern against Justice A.K. Ganguly, the Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain two public interest writ petitions.
A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi: “Let the law take its own course. We are not expressing any opinion on merits.” The CJI asked the petitioners, “Where is the [police] complaint from the law intern [against Justice Ganguly]?”
The CJI said: “We have gone through every word of your averments and prayers. We are not inclined to entertain your petitions.”
Till now she has not registered a police complaint on the alleged December 2012 incident in Kolkata.
One of the petitions, by M. Padma Narayan Singh, sought a direction to restrain the Centre from making any attempt to remove the former Supreme Court judge from the post of Chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission on the basis of the intern’s allegation.
The petitioner also sought quashing of the intern’s complaint given to the three-member panel of the Supreme Court which concluded that Justice Ganguly’s behaviour towards her was “unwelcome.”
The other petition, by advocate Uday Gupta, sought a change in the Gender Sensitisation and Sexual Harassment of Women at the Supreme Court (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Regulations, 2013 so that acts of harassment committed outside the precincts by anyone connected with the court were taken care of.
Mr. Gupta wanted a case registered against Justice Ganguly and the Supreme Court to monitor the investigation until the charge sheet was filed in a trial court.
