MP judge divested of powers

A woman Additional Judge in Gwalior had resigned in August this year, alleging sexual harassment by a sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. She was transferred when she resisted his sexual advances, she had alleged. On her complaint, the Chief Justice of the MPHC had appointed a two- member probe panel, which the complainant said, was biased against her. In response to her letter to the CJI, the Supreme Court, on Thursday, disbanded the two-member committee and also divested the MPHC judge from undertaking any administrative or supervisory role. While the move of the apex court is laudable, it reflects the sad state of affairs in our judiciary.
If such is the state of affairs for a woman judge, who is empowered and is aware of the legal nitty-gritty, the oppression of women who have no access to the justice delivery system can be well imagined. Leila Seth, a lawyer who became the first woman Chief Justice of a high court in India, once commented that learning the language of equality is slow in the judiciary. It needs to be encouraged through refresher courses, workshops and education, otherwise there will be no equality, and hence no justice.
Time and again, the gender insensitivity of the judges is brought to the fore. Last year in December, the Delhi High Court expunged two misogynist remarks made by a fast track court, terming them to be ‘insensitive’ and ‘not based on any empirical data’ about women. Several women’s groups have suggested that terms like ‘outraging the modesty’ need to be changed which result in moralistic interpretations that regulate women’s behaviour rather than act to uphold women’s rights. The fate of the woman judge’s case will depend on the account of the ‘witnesses’, which, in such cases, are hard to come by. While the woman judge victim was forced to resign from her job to restore her dignity, the accused judge continued to deliver justice! Could he deliver justice in cases that involved upholding the right to the dignity of a woman?