The complainant, who quit in 2014, in her plea requests that the MP high court judge be barred from accepting a job after he retires Wednesday.
New Delhi: A former district judge who had resigned after alleging sexual harassment by a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court moved the Supreme Court Monday seeking reinstatement.
The complainant told ThePrint that she put in her papers because she was worried she might be fired.
“I was worried I would be framed under a frivolous corruption charge. I resigned so they would not have a chance to fire me,” she said.
The former judicial officer had alleged that Justice S.K. Gangele, then her supervisor judge, sent her a message through the district court registrar to “perform a dance on an item song” at a function at his residence.
She was subsequently transferred from Gwalior to Sidhi, leading her to resign as an additional district and sessions judge on 15 July, 2014.
Her petition in the Supreme Court comes six months after a panel constituted by the Rajya Sabha dismissed the allegation of sexual harassment, even as it found the evidence on record “suggestive of the respondent judge’s interference with the transfer and rejection of the representations of the complainant…”
“But since charges of sexual harassment are not proven, it cannot be said that this interference is on account of not submitting to his immoral demands,” the panel added.
The inquiry panel, which also ruled in favour of the judicial officer’s reinstatement, included Supreme Court judge R. Banumathi, former Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur, and attorney general K.K. Venugopal. It was formed, as is the procedure, after 58 members of the Rajya Sabha sought to initiate impeachment proceedings against the high court judge in 2015.
In her petition, the judicial officer has asked the court to treat her resignation as “constructive termination” since she “resigned in duress”.
The female judge, who topped the Madhya Pradesh judicial services, could still have over three years in active service if reinstated.
The complainant also said her lawyer, senior advocate Indira Jaising, will ask the court to bar Gangele, who is set to retire on 25 July, from accepting any post-retirement jobs.
The complainant had moved the apex court earlier as well, seeking its intervention after she found the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s in-house probe unsatisfactory. The SC had stayed the high court probe and set up its own inquiry team, which found “insufficient” material to establish the charge of sexual harassment.