The three-member panel probing allegations of sexual harassment against a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has been reconvened yet again, reports PTI..The panel now will now be headed by Justice R Banumathi and also comprise Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court Manjula Chellur and Senior Advocate KK Venugopal..Justice Banumathi will be the fourth Supreme Court judge to head the panel, since its constitution last year. Last month, Justice Rohinton Nariman was appointed head of the panel after his brother judge from the Supreme Court Justice Ranjan Gogoi opted out..In February this year, Justice Vikramajit Sen was replaced after the Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari chose to have a sitting judge on the panel. Justice Sen had retired in December 2015..According to the same report, the committee is investigating the charges and grounds for removal of the judge and will submit its report to the Rajya Sabha Chairman. The report will then be tabled in both Houses of Parliament along with evidence..The motion for impeachment, which was allowed by Vice-President Ansari after 58 Rajya Sabha MPs took up the issue, lists three grounds. Among these are “sexual harassment” of the woman judge; “victimisation” of the judge for not submitting to his illegal and immoral demands”, including, but not limited to, transferring her from Gwalior to Sidhi; and “misusing” his position as the administrative judge of the MP High Court to use the subordinate judiciary to victimise the judge..It will be interesting to see what the panel decides against one of their own, in a matter that has been pending since 2014. A panel constituted last year exonerated the High Court judge facing the charges after it found “insufficient evidence” to find him guilty of sexual harassment. This report was subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court by the victim..Interestingly, it was heard by a bench comprising Justice Nariman, which is probably why he has been dropped from the present panel. In December last year, the apex court bench held that the report of the 3-judge committee will not prejudice other proceedings pertaining to the matter.
The three-member panel probing allegations of sexual harassment against a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has been reconvened yet again, reports PTI..The panel now will now be headed by Justice R Banumathi and also comprise Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court Manjula Chellur and Senior Advocate KK Venugopal..Justice Banumathi will be the fourth Supreme Court judge to head the panel, since its constitution last year. Last month, Justice Rohinton Nariman was appointed head of the panel after his brother judge from the Supreme Court Justice Ranjan Gogoi opted out..In February this year, Justice Vikramajit Sen was replaced after the Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari chose to have a sitting judge on the panel. Justice Sen had retired in December 2015..According to the same report, the committee is investigating the charges and grounds for removal of the judge and will submit its report to the Rajya Sabha Chairman. The report will then be tabled in both Houses of Parliament along with evidence..The motion for impeachment, which was allowed by Vice-President Ansari after 58 Rajya Sabha MPs took up the issue, lists three grounds. Among these are “sexual harassment” of the woman judge; “victimisation” of the judge for not submitting to his illegal and immoral demands”, including, but not limited to, transferring her from Gwalior to Sidhi; and “misusing” his position as the administrative judge of the MP High Court to use the subordinate judiciary to victimise the judge..It will be interesting to see what the panel decides against one of their own, in a matter that has been pending since 2014. A panel constituted last year exonerated the High Court judge facing the charges after it found “insufficient evidence” to find him guilty of sexual harassment. This report was subsequently challenged in the Supreme Court by the victim..Interestingly, it was heard by a bench comprising Justice Nariman, which is probably why he has been dropped from the present panel. In December last year, the apex court bench held that the report of the 3-judge committee will not prejudice other proceedings pertaining to the matter.
