Judge gets clean chit in harassment charge

NEW DELHI: A Rajya Sabha-appointed inquiry committee has given a clean chit to a sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh high court on charges of sexual harassment of a judicial officer.

The report of the committee constituted under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Friday. The panel, comprising Supreme Court judge R Bhanumathi, justice Manjula Chellur and senior lawyer KK Venugopal, was set up in April 2016 by then Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari. Ansari had admitted a motion supported by 58 members on March 4, 2015, to impeach justice SK Gangele.

An impeachment motion has to be signed by 100 Lok Sabha MPS or 50 of the Rajya Sabha for it to be accepted. The motion listed three “grounds of misconduct” for impeachment: “sexual harassment” of the woman judge, “victimisation” of the judge “for not submitting to his illegal and immoral demands” and “misus- ing” his position as the administrative judge of the MP HC to use the subordinate judiciary to victimise the judge. The committee held that the charges were not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

“The four instances of sexual harassment alleged by the complainant...are not proved beyond reasonable doubt. We hold that charge No 1 is not proved,” the report said. On the issue of the complainant’s transfer from Gwalior to Sidhi, which she held was a part of the alleged victimisation, the committee said the transfer committee “committed an irregularity” in solely relying on the recommendation of the district judge and “without making any verification” in transferring her mid-session.

The report said under transfer for wrong reasons and at a time when her child was set to take Class 12 board exams, she had no option but to resign. The committee was of the opinion that “in the interest of justice, the complainant has to be re-instated in the service, in case the complainant intends to re-join service”.