Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice an opposed to a retired Madhya Pradesh high court judge, who was accused of sexually harassing a former woman judicial officer.
The woman is a district judge, had resigned in 2014 after allegedly being harassed by the HC judge and had moved the top court recently, seeking reinstatement to “secure her fundamental right to employment and to work and carry on her profession”.
While hearing the matter on Friday, judges’ inquiry committee said that although sexual harassment could not be proved but her transfer was wrong. The apex court has posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.
In her petition, the former judge had asked the court to treat her resignation as “constructive termination” since “her resignation was neither voluntary nor conscious” but was “actuated by her illegal mid-term transfer which was punitive, irregular, unjustified, arbitrary and actuated by bias/mala fides” amounting to “constructive dismissal”. The plea argues that the dismissal “merits to be set aside”.
According to a newspaper report, the former judicial officer had alleged that the judge, who was at the time her supervisor, had sexually harassed her from December 2013 till after her resignation on July 17, 2014. On rebuking his advances, she alleged that she was subjected to “victimisation”, culminating in her transfer from Gwalior to Sidhi.
Many prominent personalities from different fields have been recently called out as alleged predators in India’s #MeToo movement. Celebrities such as Nana Patekar, Alok Nath, Kailash Kher, Rajat Kapoor and Vikas Bahl are among the popular people from the film and television industry, who have been named and shamed by survivors.
