RS-appointed panel gives clean chit to MP HC judge

New Delhi, December 15

A probe panel set up by the Rajya Sabha Chairman has given a clean chit to a sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court accused of sexually harassing a woman judicial officer.

The report of the committee constituted under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, was tabled in the Rajya Sabha today.

The panel, comprising Supreme Court judge R Bhanumathi, Justice Manjula Chellur and Jurist KK Venugopal, was set up in April 2015 by then Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari after admitting a motion supported by 58 members to impeach Justice SK Gangele.

A hundred MPs of the Lok Sabha or 50 members of the Rajya Sabha have to sign such a motion of impeachment for it to be accepted and taken up in the House.

In this case, 58 members had submitted a motion to Ansari for initiating the impeachment process against Justice Gangele for alleged sexual harassment of a woman judge in Gwalior. The committee investigated the charges and the grounds for the removal of the judge. 

The motion listed three “grounds of misconduct” for impeachment: “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.

As per the provisions of the Judges Inquiry Act of 1968, if the motion is admitted, the Speaker or the Rajya Sabha Chairman constitutes an investigation committee comprising three members. “The four instances of sexual harassment alleged by the complainant...are not proved beyond reasonable doubt...we hold that charge No 1 is not proved,” the report said. The panel also found no basis in the charge that Justice Gangele misused his position to use the lower judiciary to harass the complainant. — PTI

‘Transfer punitive, she may rejoin’

• On the issue of the complainant's transfer from Gwalior to Sidhi, the committee said the transfer panel ‘committed an irregularity' by solely relying on the recommendation of district judge Kamal Singh Thakur and ‘without making any verification... was not justified’ in transferring her mid-session
• The report said under transfer for wrong reasons and at a time when her child was set to take Class 12 Board exams, she had no option but to resign
• “...In the interest of justice, the complainant has to be reinstated in the service, in case the complainant intends to rejoin,” it said