The chief justice of India’s Supreme Court has been accused of sexually harassing a female assistant, and a special panel of judges called an emergency meeting on Saturday to address the allegations.
In an affidavit cited by several Indian news outlets, the assistant accused Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of unwanted touching and said her family was singled out for harsh retribution after she rebuffed him.
A statement from the court given to Indian news media said that the allegations were “completely and absolutely false and scurrilous and are totally denied”.
On Friday, the woman, who is in her 30s and worked as a junior court assistant, sent her detailed affidavit to more than 20 other Supreme Court judges. In the document, she claimed that in October, Mr Gogoi “hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go”.
She said: “He did not let go of me despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away.”
Soon afterward, she was fired, and her husband and brother-in-law, both police officers, were suspended from their jobs, the woman said.
The woman also said she was forced to apologise to the chief justice’s wife (even though she felt there was nothing to apologise for), and that she had to prostrate herself on the floor and rub her nose at the wife’s feet.
The Supreme Court, a progressive counterweight to the recent rightward shift in Indian politics, is considered one of India’s most vital public institutions and is among its busiest, hearing up to 700 legal matters every day.
The court, which has about 25 judges, often steps in on behalf of minorities and women, issuing directives in lofty, sometimes even poetic language, pushing for greater equality and mutual respect.
At the emergency hearing Saturday, Mr Gogoi, 64, denied the allegations against him. According to a lawyer who provided notes from the hearing, the chief justice implied the allegations were part of a broader conspiracy and said “the judiciary of this country is under very, very serious threat”.
Mr Gogoi said he would not interfere with the investigation and that Arun Mishra, a senior Supreme Court judge, would handle the case. Mr Mishra was expected to set up a committee to look into the allegations in the coming days.
The New York Times
