Kolkata: Facing mounting pressure, Justice A.K. Ganguly resigned as chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) following allegations of sexual harassment by a law intern, highly-placed sources said Monday night.
The former Supreme Court judge submitted his resignation to West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan when he met him at Raj Bhavan, the sources said. Justice Ganguly was with the Governor for about 45 minutes.
Justice Ganguly when asked by PTI whether he has resigned, replied, "I won't comment."
"It is a good thing that he has resigned a day after talking to me," former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said in Delhi.
Justice Ganguly had telehone him on Sunday and said he was contemplating resigning as WBHRC chairman. Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising, who has been strongly pitching for his removal as the human rights panel chief, said it was 'overdue'. The Senior advocate said it was the 'right decision' taken by justice Ganguly.
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Justice Ganguly's decision to quit came close on the heels of the Union Cabinet on Thursday approving a proposal for sending a Presidential reference to the Supreme Court on the issue, which was seen as a step towards his removal as WBHRC chairman.
A three-judge Supreme Court panel had indicted Justice Ganguly by holding that the statement of the intern, both written and oral, had prima facie disclosed 'an act of unwelcome behaviour (unwelcome verbal/non-verbal conduct of sexual nature)' by the judge with her in the Le Meridien hotel room on December 24 last year.
Justice Ganguly has denied the allegations of the law intern and blamed 'powerful interests' of trying to tarnish his image due to certain judgments delivered by him. In a letter of Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam last month, Justice Ganguly said he had never harassed the law intern nor made any unwelcome advances toward her or any other female intern.
Earlier in the day, Ganguly attended the office and acted upon a complaint against the alleged harassment of a school teacher.
Shukla Maja, a teacher from West Midnapore district, had written to him that she was being subject to unbearable humiliation by her colleagues following her marriage with someone from the scheduled class. Intervening in the matter, Ganguly asked the district inspector of school (secondary education) to enquire into the matter and submit a report to him within four weeks.
Meanwhile, Senior Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee said it was good that Justice Ganguly had resigned as the WBHRC chairman as it was the view of the country.
"It is good that he has resigned. He should have done this long time back. I have known him personally for a long time. He has taken the right decision.
"Those who were questioning whether he should resign or not should know that in Parliament, almost every political party irrespective of their political colour has demanded his resignation," Banerjee, party's Lok Sabha chief whip told a TV news channel. "It was the view of the country that he resigns," he said.
Next: Majority of legal fraternity welcome Ganguly's resignation
Majority of legal fraternity welcome Ganguly's resignation
New Delhi: A majority of the legal fraternity today welcomed the resignation of former Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly as chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission in the wake of allegations of sexually harassing a law intern.
While former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee said Ganguly has done a 'good thing' by resigning, senior woman law officer Indira Jaising, who has been spearheading a campaign for his removal as WBHRC chief, was of the view that it was 'overdue'.
However, some of the lawyers were of the view that Ganguly was under tremendous media pressure and he should have been given a proper course of law to prove his innocence.
Sorabjee and Jaising's views were shared by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves who said it was a right decision by Ganguly to quit and he should have even resigned prior to the findings of the apex court committee came out.
Differing with them, apex court advocate Sanjay Hegde said, "My concern is that only on the basis of unproved allegations, there is a certain desire to launch hefty law into motion before due process of law is initiated."
Sorabjee said only yesterday Justice Ganguly had spoken to him about tendering resignation and he has done it on the next day 'which is good' and 'I think it is a wise decision'. Jaising expressed happiness over the development saying the issue concerned the integrity of the entire institution.
She, however, refused to comment on whether the intern would file a police complaint or not and also if police can lodge an FIR against him now.
"I am happy about it. I wish the resignation had come earlier. It would have saved us from investigation into the whole issue but as I have been saying all along that the issue concerned is part of integrity of the entire institution.
"I think the resignation will maintain the dignity of Human Rights Commission and also of the Supreme Court itself as one cannot forget the fact that Justice Ganguly was a judge of the Supreme Court. The resignation was a long overdue," she said.
Gonsalves said there was "lot of pressure on Justice Ganguly in resigning and I think he has taken the right decision..."
He added, "Perhaps the resignation could have come a little earlier in view of allegations against him and findings of the Supreme Court committee. In any case, I am glad that he has taken the decision now and has stepped down."
Jaising also said that whether it is Ganguly or any other judge, for her it was an issue which concerns women, working women in the country. "Whether it is a judge or an employer or any other person, a certain standard of behaviour is expected from them towards women and that is why the issue was of national importance."
She also said, "Here you see that judges are joking that we are not going to have female interns and I think it should not happen and it is shocking in the extreme. They have a duty to ensure equality in work."
