SC intern sexual harassment: Woman absent for recording of statement

New Delhi: A woman intern, who has alleged sexual harassment by a recently-retired Supreme Court judge, today did not turn up for recording of her statement before the three-judge committee set up to probe the charge. Court sources said that members of the panel assembled for the meeting and waited for nearly one hour and 45 minutes. Ravindra Maithani, Secretary General of the apex court, who is also the member secretary of the committee, did not respond to calls for details of meeting. [caption id=“attachment_1240841” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Supreme Court. AFP[/caption] The sources said, “no entry pass was issued in her name today”, suggesting she made no appearance before the committee. The law intern had recorded her statement for two hours on Monday before the committee comprising justices R M Lodha, H L Dattu and Ranjana Prakash Desai, and had requested it that confidentiality of her testimony be maintained. She was again asked to appear today. The intern was requested to appear before the committee which is inquiring into the allegation levelled by her against the judge. A day after Chief Justice P Sathasivam had on November 12 constituted the three-judge committee to look into the charge of the lawyer, she was called to record her testimony to substantiate her charge. Observing that he was concerned as head of the institution (judiciary), Chief Justice Sathasivam had said, “In the cases of sexual harassment, we cannot take it lightly.” The CJI had said that the committee “will go into the whole affair and find out the facts and prepare the report and from today evening (November 12) they are going to start their work”. The matter was mentioned before the bench by Attorney General G E Vahavati who had termed it as “an extremely serious matter”. The young woman intern accused the sitting judge, who retired recently, of having misbehaved with her in a hotel room last December when the nation was grappling with the gangrape of a 23-year-old woman in the capital. PTI