Retired Supreme Court (SC) judge Asok Kumar Ganguly has been found prima facie guilty in the case of sexual harassment of a law intern by a three-judge fact finding committee constituted by Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam.
The committee, consisting of Justices R M Lodha, H K L Dattu and Ranjan Prakash Desai, said no further action is required against Justice Ganguly who has already demitted office.
A full court meeting decided that no complaint shall be entertained against retired judges and the complaint filed by another intern against the retired judge shall not be looked into.
The court found Justice Ganguly prima facie guilty when he refused to face the intern after denying the allegation.
The court also said no further action was required since the intern was not an employee of the Supreme Court and the judge had already retired.
Trinamool Congress (AITC) has exerted pressure on Justice Ganguly to resign from the post of chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), a demand backed by former Attorney General of India Soli Sorabjee.
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj has also sought the resignation of Justice Ganguly.
However, another BJP leader Dr Subramanian Swamy has backed Justice Ganguly and told him not to quit as it will set a bad precedent.
Dr Swamy has expressed the fear of a conspiracy against the retired Supreme Court judge.
Justice Ganguly, who retired in February 2012, was a member of the two-judge bench which had cancelled 122 2G spectrum licenses issued by former Union Telecom Minister A Raja.
The law intern wrote on her blog about the sexual harassment by Justice Ganguly during internship. He, however, denied the allegations as baseless.
An NGO has lodged a complaint with Kolkata police which has no territorial jurisdiction to probe the case which took place in Delhi.
Former dean of Law Faculty, Delhi University Prof S N Singh and IAS officer Pomila Shanker have lodged a police complaint against the judge but the intern has lodged no police complaint till date. No family member of the intern complained against the retired judge.
The allegations were made almost after two years since the incident had reportedly taken place in December 2011.
Justice Ganguly has also passed orders against the Mamata Banerjee government as WBHRC chief and has directed West Bengal government to pay compensation to a farmer who was arrested for raising his grievance.
Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy said that the three-judge panel had indeed found prima facie truth in the complaint of law intern against the former judge but had stated that nothing could be done as he had demitted office. It was logical for Justice Ganguly to quit the post as the head of West Bengal Human Rights Commission as quickly as possible, he said.
