Chief Justice of India Accused of Sexual Harassment
The Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, has been accused of sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court staffer. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley comes to his defence.
The Chief Justice of India (CJI) is the head of the judiciary of India and the Supreme Court (SC) of India. He CJI also heads their administrative functions. In October 2018, Justice Ranjan Gogoi was sworn in as the 46th Chief Justice of India. Born in Assam in 1954, Justice Ranjan Gogoi became the first person from the Northeast to be appointed as the Chief Justice of India.He has been accused of sexual harassment by a former Supreme Court staffer.
35-year-old woman explained wrote a letter to 22 Supreme Court judges on April 19. In that letter she gave the details of how CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexually harassed her at his residence office in October 2018.The CJI has denied the allegations and said that he did not deem it appropriate to respond to such allegations.
The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley supports the CJI. He said that the CJI has a strong sense of integrity and his extremely fair in all his cases. Mr Jaitley said that these allegations were simply a way to attack the judiciary.
Many are now wondering what is the procedure to deal with such a case of misconduct against the CJI. A committee set up under The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, does not have the mandate to deal with a case against the Judge of a SC, much less the CJI. Usually, it is the CJI who nominates a judge who heads the committee to deal with sexual harassment complaints. There is no procedure to file a complaint against the CJI, neither a proper system as to what a Judge must do if such a complaint is filed.
