New Delhi, Nov. 15: The Supreme Court appears to have identified the former judge who is accused of sexually assaulting at least two law interns while in office, sometime about two years ago.
On the Chief Justice of India’s directions, the court registry has checked the intern-assignment records relating to judges who retired in the past two years, sources toldThe Telegraph.
They said that while convention demanded that an intern work with a particular judge for only a month, the accused judge seemed to have insisted that the women interns work with him for six months.
According to the sources, the feeling among the higher judiciary is that the judge should be named, if only to end the speculation about the other judges who retired recently. So far, the accused judge has not been named.
Legal experts have complimented the Chief Justice for setting up a three-judge panel to probe the allegations after one intern came out with sexual assault charges on November 6. Since then, a second intern has made similar accusations against the same judge.
Such a panel has no precedent in the Supreme Court’s history, nor has any sitting or former apex court judge ever faced charges of sexual harassment at the workplace before.
Legal experts said the Constitution had no provision for the apex court setting up such a committee but added that the top court could certainly do so under the extraordinary powers granted to it by Article 142.
What the committee will do is question the first intern (she has been requested to appear before it on Monday, November 18) and then confront the accused judge.
If the panel prima facie finds truth in the allegations, it can direct the police to register an FIR. A PTI report said police have initiated a preliminary probe into the case.
If the judge is convicted of assaulting or using criminal force with intent to outrage a woman’s modesty (molesting her), he can be jailed for two years. A rape conviction can put him behind bars for life or at least 10 years.
The Judges Protection Act 1985 grants judges and former judges immunity from prosecution for actions committed in the discharge of their official duties. The immunity does not apply to cases of molestation or rape as such offences cannot conceivably be a fallout of a judge performing his job, legal experts said.
“(Even) if the offence was committed while he was a sitting judge, he is amenable to all the laws of the country that apply to all ordinary citizens,” said Jaspal Singh, a former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge who now practises as a lawyer in the Supreme Court.
“The allegations are very serious; the law will take its own course,” he added.
Asked if the judges’ panel had judicial sanctity, Singh said: “(Such) charges against a judge of the Supreme Court are a very serious matter. They involve the institution and therefore they (the court) want to verify the charges before taking any action.”
Senior counsel Dushyant Dave said the CJI had done “an extremely good thing” by forming the panel to probe a “brother judge”.
“That this is an in-house committee owes not to any legal requirement but more to propriety,” he said.
He added that the police must not act unless and until the panel asked them to register an FIR, for neither has the accused been identified yet, nor has any of the interns lodged a formal complaint.
“If any third party has lodged a complaint without proper material, it makes no sense,” Dave said.
He added: “It’s a very serious charge; the judge concerned has to face the music.”
| 
