Judicial panel clears Chief Justice of India from sexual harassment charges

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Judicial panel clears Chief Justice of India from sexual harassment charges
  • An in-house committee said there was no substance in the allegations.
  • Last month, allegations of sexual harassment were made by a former woman employee of the Supreme Court.
  • A report submitted by the committee is “not liable to be made public."
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Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has been cleared of the allegations of sexual harassment brought forward last month by a former woman employee of the Supreme Court.

An in-house committee, which had been set up to probe into the matter, reportedly said there was no substance in the allegations. The committee was headed by Justice SA Bobde, and Justices Indira Banerjee and Indu Malhotra.

A report submitted by the committee is “not liable to be made public,” LiveLaw reported citing a statement by the court.

In April, the Supreme Court had announced that a woman staffer had accused the chief justice of sexual harassment and announced the formation of a judicial panel. Gogoi had rejected all the charges.

Last week, the complainant reportedly withdrew from the probe, objecting to the committee saying she felt she “was not likely to get justice from this committee.
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She also cited the lack of a lawyer or a support person and felt "intimidated and nervous in the presence of three Hon'ble Judges of the Supreme Court,” she was quoted as saying in media reports.

Many lawyers have also raised concerns about the findings. Writing in the Hindu, Dushyant Dave, a senior lawyer and the former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, says, "Can [the complainant] and her family get justice at all at the hands of the judiciary, considering the respondents would be the CJI and the Supreme Court? Only time will tell. But certainly for the present, the picture is dark for them."





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