SC panel probing sexual harassment asks lawyer to depose on 18 Nov

The lawyer who accused a former Supreme Court judge of sexual harassment will depose before a three-judge committee probing the matter on 18 November. The committee consisting of Justices RM Lodha, HL Dattu and Ranjana P Desai began the inquiry process yesterday and asked the lawyer to appear before it next week. SC secretary general and secretary to the judges’ panel Ravindra Maithani told the Indian Express that the lawyer had been formally requested to depose before it at 4:30 pm. The blog post by a woman lawyer accused of a retired Supreme Court judge of sexually harassing her while she was an intern with him. The blog post by the lawyer, who graduated from Kolkata’s National University of Juridical Sciences, wrote that the incident took place last December, during the time of the Delhi gang-rape protests. She wrote in her blog, “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.” She wrote that while she “bore no real ill-will towards the man,” she felt that she had a responsibility to speak about the incident to ensure that other girls don’t face a similar problem. The Supreme Court had taken note of the incident after a petition was filed by the Attorney General and expressed concern over it. “As the head of the institution, I am also concerned about the allegation and anxious whether the statement is true or not,” Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam had said .