SC orders new body to tackle sexual harassment in judiciary

The Supreme Court of India today heard the petition of the former law intern who had alleged sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court Judge. The court also issued a limited notice which indicates that at least one part of her petition may receive a favourable outcome. In a petition which was filed on Monday, the intern, who had been identified as X in the writ petition, had made two demands from the apex court. The first relates to the 5 December order which said that it would not entertain complaints against former judges of the court. The order was passed after an earlier complaint of sexual harassment was filed against former SC judge Justice AK Ganguly. [caption id=“attachment_1341011” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AFP[/caption] Therefore, when the law intern had filed her complaint against Kumar to the Secretary General/Registrar General of the Supreme Court, he expressed an inability to do anything about the complaint due to the full court order. The petition claims that the Court cannot deny the intern a right to file a writ petition in the court, as it would be a violation of her Constitutional rights. The second demand  made by the intern is that the Court should issue an order under under Article 141 of the Indian Constitution, which states that, “The law declared by the Supreme Court shall be binding on all courts within the territory of India.” The intern wanted the apex court to ensure that under its directive, each and every court in India constitutes a proper sexual harassment committee under the Vishaka guidelines. This would not only cover the lower courts and high courts, but also quasi-judicial bodies such as Armed Forces, Green Tribunal. Today, the court did not issue any observation on the allegations itself — other than to note the long delay in filing the complaint – and instead moved on to the larger issue of setting up a permanent mechanism to deal with such cases. It has asked in its notice that a permanent mechanism be set up for redressal of sexual harassment complaints against former and sitting judges in Supreme Court, high courts, tribunals and all quasi-judicial bodies. The court has also asked the Attorney General of India and the Solicitor General to assist the court in forming such a body. The court has appointed KK Venugopal and FS Nariman as amicus curiae who will assist the court in the matter as well. The court has set 14 February, 2014 as the next date for the hearing. Justice Kumar has dismissed the charges as “incredulous and false” and are a “sinister conspiracy” aimed at interfering with his functioning as the chairperson of the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Kumar, who is currently the chairperson of National Green Tribunal, has also approached the Delhi High Court seeking damages from various media organizations for publishing ‘baseless’ reports against him.