Apex court seeks HC registrar’s reply on ex-judicial officer plea

The Supreme Court on Friday sought response from the registrar of the Madhya Pradesh high court on a plea by a woman judicial officer who had resigned in the wake of inquiry on her complaint of alleged sexual harassment against the sitting judge.

The high court judge was given a clean chit in December 2017 by a Rajya Sabha-appointed panel which probed the charges of sexual harassment against him.

A Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan issued notice to the registrar on her plea in which she also sought restoration of her seniority and back salary.

She had resigned from the post of Additional Sesseions Judge in 2014.

The bench sought response to the notice in six weeks.

Senior advocate Indira Jaising appeared for the judicial officer on whose complaint a motion of impeachment was admitted against the judge after 58 members of the Rajya Sabha supported her case.

The report of the panel comprising Supreme Court judge R Bhanumathi, Justice Manjula Chellur (then Bombay High Court judge) and jurist K K Venugopal (now Attorney General for India) giving clean chit to the judge was tabled before the Rajya Sabha on December 15, 2017.

The panel was set up in April 2015 by then Rajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari after admitting a motion supported by 58 members to impeach the judge.

Advocate Indira Jaising, appearing contended before the bench that her resignation was “actuated by her illegal midterm transfer which was unjustified, arbitrary and actuated by bias/mala fides” amounting to constructive dismissal.

The court agreed to hear the woman’s plea who urged the apex court to treat her resignation as “constructive termination” as it was “neither voluntary nor conscious”.

THE FORMER JUDICIAL OFFICER HAD ACCUSED A SITTING MP HIGH COURT JUDGE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT. THE JUDGE WAS GIVEN A CLEAN CHIT IN 2017