SC reinstates woman staffer who accused ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment

The Supreme Court has reinstated the woman employee who had filed a case last year against the former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual misconduct, reported The Indian Express. It erupted a major controversy in 2019 with the then CJI denying the charges of sexual misconduct.

The woman staffer had joined duty and proceeded on leave as all her arrears have been cleared, the sources were quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

The woman staffer had also alleged that her husband and brother-in-law, who were posted with Delhi Police, were also suspended after she was terminated. However, both of her kin were reinstated to service in June, last year.

She had joined the Supreme Court in 2014 as a junior lawyer, and in October 2018 she alleged victimisation when she spurned unwelcome advances by the former CJI Gogoi as she was posted at his residence office at that time. She filed a complaint in May 2019, after which her services were terminated after multiple transfers on grounds that she took leave without authorisation.

After her detailed complaint, an inquiry was set-up in which In-House Committee had “found no substance” in her charges and after a clean chit was given to the former CJI.

“The In-House Committee has found no substance in the allegations contained in the Complaint dated 19.4.2019 of a former employee of the Supreme Court of India” a May 6, 2019 notice by the office of the Supreme Court Secretary General had said. When the case came to light in April 2019, the office of the Supreme Court Secretary General had “denied” the charges, calling them “absolutely false and scurrilous”.

She however had expressed her disappointment over the finding of the committee.

In March 2019, allegations were made against the woman staffer that she had taken money from a man promising him a job in the Supreme Court in return. A case of cheating and intimidation was filed against her. But the Delhi Police later filed a closure report on the case which was then accepted by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court.