TCN News
About 350 feminists and women’s rights groups have written an open letter to the retired judges of Supreme Court expressing their disappointment at the clean chit given to Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and asking them to speak up to ensure justice and give the complainant a fair hearing.
They have also released a press statement expressing their solidarity with the complainant, a female employee of the supreme court who has filed complaints against the CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
The woman employee had submitted an affidavit of 29 pages to the 22 judges of the SC in which she had mentioned the details of the sexual harassments she faced while working under the Chief Justice of India.
Without even hearing her, the allegations were dismissed off as false by the bench of which even the accused CJI was part.
Many people protested this breach of procedure following which an in-house committee was formed to decide on the allegations. The persons in the committee were Justices SA Bobde, Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee.
But this 3 committee was itself formed in contravention to the guidelines laid down in the Vishaka judgement wherein it is clearly stated that a committee dealing with sexual harassment case should be headed by a woman and also have one external member present in it. This committee was headed by SA Bobde.
Furthermore the complainant was not allowed to be represented by a legal person and after 2 informal hearings the grieved woman withdrew from the enquiry because she was not allowed legal representation and not even a person to accompany her because of her hearing disability.
In her absence, today, 7th May, the committee declared that there is “no substance in the allegation contained in the complaint”. Further, in full violation of her right as a complainant, they denied a copy of the report to the complainant.
Further expressing their deep anguish at the injustice meted to the woman complainant the groups of activists have said “ Today is a dark and sad day. The Supreme Court has told us that when it comes to one of its own, imbalances of power don’t matter, due process doesn’t matter, and basic norms of justice don’t matter. The ripple effect that this will now have across the board can well be imagined: if the guardian of the rule of law, and the institution that is supposed to be a moral exemplar to the nation, acts in this way, then why should anyone else act differently? And with what face can a court tell them to act differently, given its own conduct?”
And in their letter to the judges dated 7th May, they have said it is not only the rights of women that is at stake but also the credibility of the Supreme Court. It is to protect this system that has been painstakingly created by the diligence of many members of the judiciary.”
They have requested the retired judges to intervene and safeguard the integrity of Indian Judiciary.
There have been protests outside the Supreme court against this decision of the in-house committee by women’s groups and other organisations demanding an independent committee to impartially investigate the case.
The protestors were all taken to the Mandir Marg PS where they were detained.
