TMC steps up pressure on Ganguly, says he must quit Rights body

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress has asked West Bengal Human Rights Commission Chairman and former Supreme Court judge Ashok Ganguly, indicted by a Supreme Court panel in a sexual harassment matter, to step down on World Human Rights Day on Tuesday, saying “violators cannot be guardians.”

“Today is United Nations Human Rights Day. Former Supreme Court judge Ashok Ganguly is continuing as chief of WBHRC. Sir, please don’t mock your office,” Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien tweeted.

“It would be apt if he chose the United Nations Human Rights Day to step down as WBHRC chairman and cleanse the office,” O’Brien, also the TMC spokesman, said.

He told PTI that Trinamool Congress MPs would raise the issue in both houses of Parliament on Tuesday.

A committee of three judges of the apex court had indicted their former colleague, Justice Ganguly, for “unwelcome behaviour” and “conduct of sexual nature” towards a woman law intern, prompting demands for his resignation from the chairmanship of WBHRC.

Justice Ganguly was accused by the intern of sexually harassing her in a hotel room in Delhi last year.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote two successive letters last week to President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking removal of Justice Ganguly, some of whose recommendations as WBHRC chairman did not go down well with the state government.

Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and party MP Smriti Irani have also demanded his resignation.

The retired judge has denied the charge.

PTI