See: http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2013/12/sex-case-will-sc-respond-to-justice.html
Not legal, your Lordship, but a threat to rule of law in India
Statement of Stella James on 23rd December 2013 -- JILSBLOGNUJS and related reports
Statement of Stella James on 23rd December 2013
It has been widely reported in the news today that former Justice A.K. Ganguly has written a letter to the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India. Several questions have been raised in the past few weeks, and I think it is appropriate at this stage, for me to answer some of them:
- Timing and Intent of the Blog
After the incident, when I returned to college, NUJS Kolkata, I spoke to some of my faculty about the incident at different times. Since the incident occurred during an internship, and the University did not have a policy against sexual harassment of women students during internship, it was indicated to me that any action would be ineffective. I was also informed that the only route for me was to file a complaint with the police, which I was reluctant to do. However, I felt it was important to warn young law students that status and position should not be confused for standards of morality and ethics. Hence I chose to do so via a blog post.
2. Deposing Before the three-member Committee
I did not question the jurisdiction or intent of the Hon’ble Three-member Judges’ Committee at any point, and had full faith that they would establish the truth of my statements. I sought confidentiality of proceedings keeping in mind the gravity of the situation, as well as the privacy of everyone involved.
The Committee acted with great discretion given the delicate nature of the case, and I appreciate that. The prima facie finding of three-Judge committee is well known to all.
3. Putting the details of my statement in public domain
Please find below the following timeline for clarity:
18th November 2013 – I appeared in person before the Hon’ble three-Judge Committee, and gave oral statement before the Committee. I also submitted written statement to the Committee, signed by me before them in person.
29th November 2013 – I sent an affidavit, signed and sworn on the same day, to Ms Indira Jaising, Additional Solicitor General of India, disclosing to her the details of my sexual harassment, and requested her to seek appropriate action. The contents of the affidavit are substantially the same as the statements made by me before the Committee.
Even after the operative portion of the report of the Committee, was made public, many eminent citizens and legal luminaries continued to deride the Committee’s findings, and malign me. Hence, I found it necessary to clarify the details of my statement to preserve my own dignity as well as that of the Supreme Court. Therefore, I authorized Ms Indira Jaising, the Additional Solicitor General of India to make my statement public.
At this stage, I believe that anyone claiming that my statements are false is showing disrespect not just to me, but also to the Supreme Court of India.
4. Police Complaint
I request that it be acknowledged that I have the discernment to pursue appropriate proceedings at appropriate times. I ask that my autonomy be respected fully.
Again, I would like to state that I have acted with utmost responsibility throughout, keeping in mind the seriousness of this situation. Those who have been spreading rumours and politicizing the issue, are doing so out of prejudice and malice to obfuscate the issue and escape scrutiny and accountability.
Stella James
Statement of Stella James [SC Judge Sexual Harassment Case]
november 13, 2013 1 comment
Sexual abuse of Law Student by the Judge of Supreme Court now retired
Sexual abuse of Law Student by the Judge of Supreme Court now retired.Stella James, who graduated from NUJS Kolkata this year and now works at the NGO Natural Justice, Lawyers for Communities and the Environment, wrote about an alleged incident of physical, sexual assault by an unnamed, retired Supreme Court judge in late 2012.
She made a narration of her experience of 24 December 2012, Christmas Eve, ironically against the backdrop of the then-ongoing Delhi gang rape protests:
“In Delhi at that time, interning during the winter vacations of my final year in University, I dodged police barricades and fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme Court judge whom I was working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed diligence, I was rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless violating) from a man old enough to be my grandfather. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that long after I’d left the room, the memory remained, in fact, still remains, with me.”
Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam on Tuesday constituted a three-judge committee headed by Justice R.M. Lodha to probe the allegation of a woman law intern that she was sexually harassed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court in 2012.
The committee, which includes Justices H.L. Dattu and Ranjana Desai, held a meeting and discussed the modalities of conducting the probe.
In the morning, advocate Manoharlal Sharma drew the attention of the CJI to a report published in an English newspaper under the title ‘intern alleges sexual harassment by Supreme Court judge’ and sought suo motu action. The CJI told him that he had seen the report and was aware of it.
In the afternoon, Attorney General (AG) G.E. Vahanvati told a Bench comprising the CJI and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh that he was filing a writ petition based on the newspaper report, which was based on a blog written by the intern on November 9 in the Journal of Indian Law and Society.
The AG said: “sexual harassment is an extremely serious matter and the court must look into it. The report gave rise to speculation amongst the members of the Bar and the public and the truth of the allegations must be probed.”
The CJI told the AG, “As the head of the institution [judiciary], I am also concerned about it. I am anxious whether the statement is true or not. In the cases of sexual harassment, we cannot take it lightly. We are taking steps. The matter was also mentioned at 10.30 a.m. by Mr. Sharma and during the lunch recess, I discussed this with other judges. I have constituted a committee comprising three judges. The committee will go into the whole affair and find out the facts and prepare the report and from today [Tuesday] evening they are going to start their work.”
The CJI said, “First, the committee will find out the correctness of the statement. There are records about interns or advocates who are associated with judges. Further entries are made about persons coming to the Supreme Court and the committee will go into all aspects. We have already framed guidelines.”
In his petition, the AG said: “allegations of sexual harassment are an extremely serious matter, more so when it concerns the highest judicial institution in the country and must receive prompt and immediate action. The matter should be properly investigated and the person who has made these allegations should be required to name the person and the matter be carried to its logical conclusion if the allegations are found to be correct. Equally if the allegations are unsubstantiated, then the law must take its course.”
The CJI told the AG that he was adjourning hearing on the petition by two weeks to await the outcome of the probe report.
Justice Ganguly named by law intern in sexual harassment case
New Delhi, Nov 29, 2013 (PTI)
Justice A K Ganguly, former judge of the Supreme Court, believed to have been accused by a law intern of sexual harassment, has recorded a statement before the three-judge committee, which has submitted its report.
The Committee headed by Justice R M Lodha submitted the report yesterday after recording the statement of Justice Ganguly, who is now heading the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, an apex court official said today.
Ganguly demitted office as Supreme Court judge on February 3, 2012.
The Committee headed by Justice R M Lodha submitted the report yesterday after recording the statement of Justice Ganguly, who is now heading the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, an apex court official said today.
Ganguly demitted office as Supreme Court judge on February 3, 2012.
"The committee constituted to inquire into the allegations of sexual harassment levelled by the law intern against a former SC judge held its meetings on November 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26 and 27.
"The statement of law intern was recorded. She had also submitted three affidavits. The statement of Mr. Justice (retired) A K Ganguly has also been recorded by the committee. The committee has submitted its report to the CJI on November 28," the official said in a statement.
Officials, however, did not give any further details of the findings of the committee comprising also Justices H L Dattu, and Ranjana Prakash Desai, which was constituted by the CJI on November 12.
The intern had earlier this month told a legal news portal that a "recently retired" judge with whom she was working earlier had sexually harassed.
Hit by the allegation, the Supreme Court constituted the three-judge committee to go into the charge of the intern.
Justice Ganguly was elevated to Supreme Court on December 17, 2008 and demitted office on February 3, 2012.
"The statement of law intern was recorded. She had also submitted three affidavits. The statement of Mr. Justice (retired) A K Ganguly has also been recorded by the committee. The committee has submitted its report to the CJI on November 28," the official said in a statement.
Officials, however, did not give any further details of the findings of the committee comprising also Justices H L Dattu, and Ranjana Prakash Desai, which was constituted by the CJI on November 12.
The intern had earlier this month told a legal news portal that a "recently retired" judge with whom she was working earlier had sexually harassed.
Hit by the allegation, the Supreme Court constituted the three-judge committee to go into the charge of the intern.
Justice Ganguly was elevated to Supreme Court on December 17, 2008 and demitted office on February 3, 2012.
Statement of Stella James
Date – 12.11.2013
Statement of Stella James
At around 2.30 pm today, a friend who practices in the Supreme Court called me up to inform that the Chief Justice has formed a committee to look into the issues raised in myblog post.
Since yesterday, a lot of media persons have tried to contact me – either directly or through the journal. Since the committee has now been constituted, I will depose before the Hon’ble judges. Thus, it won’t be appropriate for me to speak to members of the media anymore. Moreover, I have nothing more to say than whatever I have already said in my blog post and the interview I gave to Legally India. I hope all of you will understand my need for privacy.
I thank everyone who have been sending me supportive messages. In times like this, words of wisdom from seniors and good luck messages from friends help a lot. I was particularly touched by the numerous messages which I received from girls who have been at the receiving end of sexual harassment themselves.
Through My Looking Glass
We reproduce the full text of the blogpost by a young lawyer which has led to the Supreme Court appointing a three-member panel to probe sexual harassment charges against a retired judge
Sometimes the most difficult things to write about are also the most essential. I feel this is especially true when many people, much more scholarly than oneself, have already said and written a lot around the issue, and yet your own experience does not seem to fit into the wide net that they’ve cast. Gandhi once said “I have something far more powerful than arguments, namely, experience”. And it is from these words that I derive what I consider the ‘value’ of this piece – not my experience per se, but from what I feel that my experience can tell us about much discussed issues in the country today.
Last December was momentous for the feminist movement in the country – almost an entire population seemed to rise up spontaneously against the violence on women, and the injustices of a seemingly apathetic government. In the strange irony of situations that our world is replete with, the protests were the backdrop of my own experience. In Delhi at that time, interning during the winter vacations of my final year in University, I dodged police barricades and fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme Court judge whom I was working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed diligence, I was rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless violating) from a man old enough to be my grandfather. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice it to say that long after I’d left the room, the memory remained, in fact, still remains, with me.So what bothered me about this incident? As a conditioned member of the society, I had quickly “gotten over” the incident. But was that what worried me: that I had accepted what was essentially an ‘unacceptable’ situation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the crux of my unease lay in my inability to find a frame in which to talk, or even think, about my experience. While the incident affected me deeply, I felt little anger and almost no rancour towards the man; instead I was shocked and hurt that someone I respected so much would do something like this. My strongest reaction really, was overwhelming sadness. But this sort of response was new to me. That I could understand his actions and forgive him for them, or that I could continue to think of him as an essentially ‘good’ person, seemed a naïve position that were completely at odds with what I had come to accept was the “right” reaction to such incidents.
This emotional response was also completely at odds with the powerful feelings of righteous anger that the protestors in Delhi displayed. I am not trying to say that anger at the violence that women face is not a just or true response, but the polarization of women’s rights debates in India along with their intense emotionality, left me feeling that my only options were to either strongly condemn the judge or to betray my feminist principles. Perhaps this confusion came out of an inadequate understanding of feminist literature, but if so, isn’t then my skewed perception a failing of feminism itself? If the shared experiences of women cannot be easily understood through a feminist lens, then clearly there is a cognitive vacuum that feminism fails to fill. Feminists talk of the guilt a woman faces when sexually harassed, like it is her fault. I felt a similar guilt, except, my guilt wasn’t at being assaulted, but at not reacting more strongly than I did. The very perspective that was meant to help me make sense of my experiences as a woman was the one that obscured the resolution of the problem in my own mind, presumably an effect that feminism does not desire. And if not a result of feminist theory itself, the form that it has taken in India, especially after recent incidents of sexual assault, strengthened the feeling of “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” in a fight that I feel I can no longer take sides in.
All the talk during that time was of stricter punishment, of baying for the blood of “creepy” men. Five years of law school had taught me to look to the law for all solutions – even where I knew that the law was hopelessly inadequate – and my reluctance to wage a legal battle against the judge left me feeling cowardly. On reflection though, I cannot help but wonder why I should have felt that way. As mentioned earlier, I bore, and still bear, no real ill-will towards the man, and had no desire to put his life’s work and reputation in question. On the other hand, I felt I had a responsibility to ensure that other young girls were not put in a similar situation. But I have been unable to find a solution that allows that. Despite the heated public debates, despite a vast army of feminist vigilantes, despite new criminal laws and sexual harassment laws, I have not found closure. The lack of such an alternative led to my facing a crippling sense of intellectual and moral helplessness.
The incident is now a while behind me, and they say time heals all wounds. But during the most difficult emotional times, what helped me most was the ‘insensitivity’ of a close friend whose light-hearted mocking allowed me to laugh at an incident (and a man) that had caused me so much pain. Allowing myself to feel more than just anger at a man who violated me, something that I had never done before, is liberating! So, I want to ask you to think of one thing alone – when dealing with sexual violence, can we allow ourselves to embrace feelings beyond or besides anger, and to accept the complexity of emotions that we face when dealing with anytraumatic experience?
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REPORT ABUSEAG Clears Proposal for Prez Reference on A.K.Ganguly
| Attorney General G E Vahanvati is today learnt to have endorsed a government proposal for a presidential reference for removal of Justice (Retd) A K Ganguly as head of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in the wake of his indictment by a Supreme Court panel for "unwelcome behaviour" towards a woman law intern. |
The Law Ministry and the Home Ministry are already in agreement that prima facie a case can be made out against the former Supreme Court judge, sources said here.
The matter was referred to Attorney General Vahanvati for his view on the government's stand as part of the laid down procedure.
In his opinion, to be forwarded to the Home Ministry soon, the AG is learnt to have said that there was sufficient evidence against the former SC judge and it was a fit case for a Presidential reference.
The stand of the Law Ministry and the AG are based, among other things, on the report of the three-judge SC committee which went into the allegations of the law intern.
The Home Ministry had recently referred the matter to the Law Ministry. The Home Ministry will now take a final view on the issue.
The move came after President Pranab Mukherjee referred to the Home Ministry a letter by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking Ganguly's removal from the high post following a woman law intern's allegation of sexual harassment against the former judge. Justice Ganguly has strongly denied the charge and refused to quit his post.
The Presidential reference to be made to the apex court will have to be cleared by the Union Cabinet before it is sent to the President.
The Protection of Human Rights Act is clear that a Chairperson or member of the NHRC or a state human rights commission can only be removed "by order of the President of India on the grounds of proven misbehaviour or incapacity after the Supreme Court, on reference being made to it by the President, has, on enquiry reported that the Chairperson or the member, as the case may be, ought on any such ground to be removed."
FILED ON: DEC 20, 2013 21:28 IST
http://news.outlookindia.com/items.aspx?artid=821798
![Members of civil rights group protest against retired Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly, outside the headquaters of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in Kolkata. File photo: Sushanta Patronobish]( "Members of civil rights group protest against retired Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly, outside the headquaters of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in Kolkata. File photo: Sushanta Patronobish")
This is very dangerous trend in India. If country is not able to go by the due
Why Hon; Supreme Court is shying from acting firmly on the issue so as
The way this episode is unraveling, it appears that the lady intern has
Published: December 24, 2013 11:43 IST | Updated: December 24, 2013 13:51 IST
Intern hints at filing police complaint against Ganguly
The HinduMembers of civil rights group protest against retired Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly, outside the headquaters of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in Kolkata. File photo: Sushanta Patronobish
Her comments came a day after Justice Ganguly wrote to the Chief Justice of India saying there was a "concerted move" to tarnish his image.
A former law intern, who had accused the former Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly of sexual harassment, has hit back at him for denying the charges and hinted that she may file a police complaint.
“Those who have been spreading rumours and politicising the issue, are doing so out of prejudice and malice to obfuscate the issue and escape scrutiny and accountability,” the intern wrote on her blog on Legally India.
Her comments came a day after Justice Ganguly had written an eight-page letter to Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam, denying that he had sexually harassed the intern and alleging there was a “palpable design” to malign him because of the judgements he had given against “powerful quarters”.
Indicating that she may lodge a police complaint, the intern said, “I request that it be acknowledged that I have the discernment to pursue appropriate proceedings at appropriate times. I ask that my autonomy be respected fully.”
The intern said that any one claiming that her statements were false was showing disrespect not just to her but also to the Supreme Court.
“I would like to state that I have acted with utmost responsibility throughout, keeping in mind the seriousness of this situation,” she said.
Six comments:
This is very dangerous trend in India. If country is not able to go by the due
process to determine the guilt even of Supreme court justice, then there is some
thing wrong. It is not that this young woman telling the truth or not, but how and
who will determine that is the question. Is it not possible some women to wrongly
accuse?. It is not that Ganguly should be protected, but what he seem to be
asking is to have due process, until then he should continue. Imagine if some one
accuses a sitting supreme court justice, or even chief justice, or president. Not that
these guys are not capable of doing such things, but there should be due process,
which should be quick, which should be not in public. If there is no due process,
people will lose faith on such good legal instruments to protect women and their
dignity.
from: B.Gujja
Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 14:13 IST Why Hon; Supreme Court is shying from acting firmly on the issue so as
the truth is out in open. All the three players are Viz; The victim,
accused and panel are playing safe and media is blowing the news
disproportionately.
from: Pradei
Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 13:54 IST I agree with the views of the two previous comments. What the media is doing now, is sheer business; no concurrence to the law of the land. If such is the case, anyone can make some comments about anybody in some blog and with sufficient influence or money power, can make the media take up the matter, and cause immense damage to the reputation of anyone. And, imagine the mental condition of justice Ganguly if he is innocent. Can he ever redeem his reputation? What is going on?
from: george varghese
Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 13:43 IST The way this episode is unraveling, it appears that the lady intern has
been trying to blackmail Justice Ganguly. Let us wait for the CJI's
response.
from: S.A.Krishnan
Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 13:15 IST Who prevented her from filing a complaint to Police?It is sheer black mailing and that is what required by the accused , culprits and collaborators punished by the Justice.What a tragedy of events and dramas enacted?.All these accusations and counter accusations will lead people lose faith in human decency and law of rule.If you have money and men you can organize any protests, jathas and mudslinging.Beware the Judges handling sensitive cases and scams, the evil spirits are around you and surround you.
from: Dr K V Peter
Posted on: Dec 24, 2013 at 12:56 IST http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/intern-hints-at-filing-police-complaint-against-ganguly/article5496862.ece