A Gwalior district judge accused HC judge of sexually harassing her, claimed she was ‘victimised’ later by being transferred from Gwalior to Sidhi.
New Delhi: A three-member panel set up by the Rajya Sabha to investigate sexual harassment charges against Justice S.K. Gangele, a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, has given him a clean chit.
An additional district and sessions judge at Gwalior had alleged that the high court judge sent her a message through the district court registrar to “perform a dance on an item song” at a function in his residence. She also claimed that she was “victimised” later by being transferred from Gwalior to Sidhi.
The panel comprising the lone woman judge of the apex court, Justice R. Banumathi, chief justice of the Bombay High Court Manjula Chellur and attorney general K.K. Venugopal said that the allegations are “not proven”.
The panel, however, found evidence that is “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 complainant had moved the apex court after she found the Madhya Pradesh High Court’s in-house probe unsatisfactory. The SC stayed the high court probe and set up its own team. The court later dismissed her petition after the probe panel also dismissed the charges citing that there was “insufficient” material to establish the charge of sexual harassment.
The complainant made the charges against the high court judge days after she was transferred and resigned from her position subsequently. In 2015, while the apex court case was pending, 58 members of the Rajya Sabha sought to initiate impeachment proceedings against the high court judge.
Two apex court judges — Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton F. Nariman — were chosen to head the probe panel. Justice Banumathi was appointed after both judges recused themselves.