Spreading the light of humanity & freedom
Editor:
Nagaraja.M.R.. Vol.08..Issue.47........23/11/2013
Editorial : Hang
Rapist Judges to Lamp Posts - JUDGES &
SEXUAL CRIMES
At the outset , we
express our whole hearted respects to the honest few public servants
in public service
including judiciary & Police. However, the corrupt in public service don’t
deserve
respect as individuals –
as they are parasites in our legal system. Still we respect the
chairs they occupy but
not the corrupt individuals.
All the following
articles / issues , past cases of sexual assaults on women by judges (hushed up
?) , whole articles published in the weblinks mentioned
below forms part of this
appeal. The term “JUDGE” mentioned throught includes all public
servants discharging
judicial functions right from taluk magistrates , quasi-judicial
officers to Chief
Justice of India.
Indian Legal / Judicial
System is manipulated at various stages & is for sale. It is a SHAME.
The persons who raise
their voice seeking justice are silenced in many ways. The
criminal nexus has
already attempted to silence me in many ways . If anything untoward
happens to me or to my
family members , my dependents , Honourable Chief Justice of
India together with
jurisdictional police officer will be responsible for it.
Hereby, we do once again
offer our conditional services to the honourable supreme court
of India & other
government authorities, in apprehending criminals including corrupt
judges & police.
Herewith , we once again appeal to the honourable supreme court of
India , to consider this
as a PIL Appeal in public interest.
Consider the cases of
sexual assault by JUDGES , POLICE on women . The JUDGES
have legal immunity with
respect to their official duties, official actions but not their
individual actions
amounting to CRIMES.
The public servants
& the government must be role models in law abiding acts , for others
to emulate & follow.
if a student makes a mistake it is excusable & can be corrected by
the teacher. if the
teacher himself makes a mistake , all his students will do the same
mistake. if a thief
steals , he can be caught , legally punished & reformed . if a police
himself commits crime ,
many thieves go scot- free under his patronage. even if a police ,
public servant commits a
crime , he can be legally prosecuted & justice can be sought by
the aggrieved. just
think , if a judge himself that too of apex court of the land itself
commits crime -
violations of RTI Act , constitutional rights & human rights of public and
obstructs the public
from performing their constitutional fundamental duties , what
happens ? it gives a
booster dose to the rich & mighty , those in power , criminals in
public service to
committ more crimes. that is exactly what is happenning in india. the
educated public must
raise to the occassion & peacefully , democratically must oppose
this criminalisation of
judiciary , public service. then alone , we can build a RAM RAJYA OF MAHATMA
GANDHI'S DREAM.
Hereby , we request the
honourable court to reopen all hushed up old cases of sexual assault involving
judges and to punish the guilty judges.
Read Is CHIEF JUSTICE OF
INDIA above LAW ???
Law student sexually
harassed by ex-Supreme Court judge: case is not unique, but speaking out
is nearly impossible
In India , corruption ,
favouritism is prevalent in all recriutment / selection processes. The selection
is made on bribe , caste , religion but definitely NOT on the basis of Merit
& Integrity. The selection to the posts of even Supreme court Judges ,
quasi judicial officers like district magistrates , taluk magistrates , police
, etc is not above board. For example we have recently seen the illegalities
in KPSC interviews selecting gazetted officers to government of karnataka service. These
tainted , ineligible unfit waste body candidates who get selected
as judges , police through devious means sell their
judicial orders , executive orders , police orders for a price. The
denotfications of government lands , etc as in the case of Mysore
DC Vastrad , as in the case of Neglect of Hebbal Lake &, BEML
Quarters Lake Encroachment by DC Manivannan , as in the case of Land
irregularities by Bangalore DC Aiyyappa , changing the penal clause of
penal charges to favour the criminal as in the case of union
carbide’s warren Anderson from mass murder to improper management of the
facility , as in the case of Sanjay dutt from TADA charges to
illegal possession of arms , etc. The police for a price fix
innocents , file B reports favouring the criminals to close the case
, prefer not to file an appeal in the higher court , etc. As in the
case of Bofors , as in the case of past SP of chamarajanagar Puttaswamy
taking bribe from a granite quarry owner for filing B-report in a case. Disgracefully ,
recently a judge tainted in MYSORE ROOST RESORT
SEX SCANDAL was promoted as a supreme court
judge. What Justice common folk can expect from these corrupt bodies ?
They turn illegalities into legal issues by their orders. These
CORRUPT Judges , Police , District Magistrates , Taluk Magistrates
are doing more damage to India’s Unity & Integrity than
the Naxalites & Terrorists. These corrupt public servants must
be put behind bars together with terrorists & naxalites. Let the sense
prevail & Democracy prosper. The Honest few in Judiciary , Police &
Executive must raise upto the occasion to SAVE DEMOCRACY & to kick
out their corrupt colleagues from office.
Your’s Sincerely ,
Nagaraja.M.R.
Supreme
Court zeroes in on ‘harass’ judge; support for disclosure grows CJI lauded
for probe order
|
R. BALAJI
|
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 told The 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.”
|
Nothing but the truth
By Indira Jaising
A midst the rising din of the demand for death penalty for rapists comes the news that three judges of the Karnataka High Court have been involved in what has come to be described as a 'sex scandal' on the outskirts of Mysore at a place called Roost Resorts.
Our attention is now directed to those who dispense justice rather than those who knock at the doors of justice. In both cases, we are talking about the use and abuse of women — those who are victims of sexual abuse, and those who are used as sexual objects, willingly or unwillingly.
After the reports in local newspapers that three high court judges were found with women at a resort, there was the usual crop of denials. Although the Mysore police were called in to settle a brawl, on being told that the persons in question were judges they said that they heard no evil and saw no evil.
And everyone thought the matter ended there.
Attempts to get the names of the judges or of the women in question drew a blank. The bar association also drew a blank as most people said, "Don't quote me… but…"
On November 30, the Bangalore edition of The Times of India published a front-page story giving the names and photographs of the three judges and confirming that the Intelligence Bureau had done an investigation and come to the conclusion that the incident had indeed occurred. There were still no details of the incident, though it was stated that the report has been given to the chief justice of India.
There were reports on the same day that the Karnataka High Court chief justice had sought the transfer of the three judges to Patna, Jammu and Kashmir and Guwahati. Apparently, the chief justice has agreed to this request and the transfer orders have been issued.
Then came the news that the chief justice of India has set up a committee of inquiry under the 'in-house' procedure consisting of the chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, the chief justice of the Madras High Court and the chief justice of the Patna High Court.
There were still no details in the press about the actual incident and the entire episode continued to be referred to as a 'sex scandal'.
What is interesting about these reports is not what they reveal, but what they conceal. It is a conspiracy of silence. If the information is now available to the chief justice of India, why is it not being made public? Do we, the public, not have the right to information? Ironically, the morning newspapers brought the news that the Freedom of Information Act has been passed. What are the legitimate limits of the right to freedom of information and the requirement of keeping information a secret? This episode would make an interesting case study.
What exactly is at stake here? There is much that should concern the nation about the incident. This is not a case about the private morality of the judges, be that as it may, but about the abuse of office that they hold. What has not been made known is that the three women in question are women lawyers practising in their courts.
What is at stake here is the pollution of the stream of justice at its very source. There must be countless cases in which these women appeared before these very judges day in and day out of their routine practice. Can one honestly say that in such a situation justice is being done "without fear or favour"? Judges swear on oath of allegiance to "bear true faith" to the Constitution and do justice "without fear or favour". How well have these judges honoured this oath?
What is at stake here is the cynical use of women as sexual commodities. The usual justifications have already begun making the rounds. If the women have not complained, what objection can anyone else have, it is asked. What is lost sight of is the fact that the judges are in a position of dominance vis-à-vis the women, in a position to do favours that pertain to their office.
What is at stake here is the cynical use of public office, the seat of justice, for personal petty gain. It is irrelevant whether the women consented or not. The usual blame game will now begin — blaming the victim rather than the perpetrator; the usual loose talk about the character of the woman in question; the usual attempt to cover up by diverting attention from the actual incident to the motives of those who brought the incident to light.
What is at stake here is the perception of women as sexual commodities by those who are responsible for sitting in judgment over cases brought for and on behalf of women.
The issues at stake here concern one half of Indians. With what faith can Indian women approach the courts demanding the right to equality, the right to be free from sexual harassment or rape and the right to live with dignity, if the persecution of judges who sit in judgment over them is non-negotiable?
In the circumstances, the suggested solution is worse than the offence — to transfer them to Patna, Guwahati and Jammu and Kashmir. Why these particular cities? Are they not an integral part of the country, or are they mere islands within the country that are considered 'punishment postings' where people are sent a la 'crossing Kala Pani' of the old days? To the credit of the Guwahati Bar Association, it protested against the proposed transfer.
The only decent thing to do is for the chief justice of India to disclose full details of the incident so that rumour-mongering comes to an end. This would be in the best interest of the judiciary itself.
As things stand, the rumours are making the rounds that there were more than three judges involved, that the women were professional call girls, many of which are baseless. We, the people, have the right to know. The conspiracy of silence must be broken.
The judges in question must neither be assigned any judicial functions pending an inquiry nor be transferred to sit in judgment over others. Two of the judges are stated to be additional judges. They must not be confirmed. If there is prima facie evidence against the one remaining judge, the chief justice must recommend his impeachment.
It is time for all concerned bar associations, bar councils and other male-dominated bodies of legal professionals to act and ensure that there is no cover-up. There is little point in showing sympathy to women in judgments and in seminar rooms, or in recommending the death penalty for rape if we cannot deal with the men who dispense justice.
There are contempt of court petitions pending in the Karnataka High Court against some of the publications for disclosing details of the incident. Civil society and women's organisations must demand that justice is now done when it comes to the judges themselves.
The law of contempt can offer no solution to the crisis of credibility in the judiciary that this incident has thrown up. One positive aspect of the incident is that it is only after the chief justice of the high court issued a public notice inviting information that he received 20 representations, which led to the discovery of the truth.
Let the truth now be made public.
Judge accused of molesting
2 rape survivors in UP
A sitting judicial
magistrate sexually assaulted them
UP: Two rape victims
claim that a sitting judicial magistrate sexually assaulted them. The girls
alleged that when they
went to the magistrate’s chamber to give their statement, he allegedly
made them strip and
molested them.
One of the girls is a
minor and the police have filed a complaint. The girls also claimed that the
judge threatened them to
not speak of the incident to anyone.
Lawyers and the general
public in Gonda launched a protest against the judge.
Earlier, a woman lawyer had written a blog in which she charged a former Supreme Court judge of sexually harassing her, while she interned with him in 2012. The woman lawyer who completed her law degree from National University of Jurdicial Sciences, Kolkata wrote is her blog, "In Delhi at that time, interning during the winter vacations of my final year in the University, I dodged police barricades and fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme Court judge whom I was working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed diligence, I was rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless violating) from a man old enough to be my grandfather."
She had also claimed that at least three other girls have also faced harassment by the same judge. The girl said that she had refrained from disclosing the details initially due to the high position that the judge held.
The Chief Justice of India said,
"As the head of the institution, I am also concerned about the allegations
and anxious whether the statement is true or not. The committee will go into
the whole affair and find out the facts. We are taking steps and in cases of
sexual harassment, we cannot take it lightly."
The latest allegations were made on a Facebook post on November 11 and reported by a law website, Legally India, on Thursday.
The same website had given the link to the first intern’s blog, describing her ordeal. The Supreme Court has appointed a three-judge panel to inquiry into her allegations and the victim has been asked to record her statement on November 18.
But unlike the first instance, the website this time has not given the link to the Facebook post or identified the woman. When contacted Kian Ganz, who reported both the incidents, told HT: “I got to know about the second intern’s experience with the judge through the Facebook post. However, I wasn’t able to confirm if she wanted to go public.”
The second victim, too, was an intern with the same judge, the website said. HT, however, could not confirm the claims or the allegations independently. The two women can’t be identified for legal reasons.
The excerpts uploaded on Legally India on Thursday quote the second intern as saying she was “at the receiving end of unsolicited sexual advance more than once”. Both the interns knew each other, the report claimed.
“…. we kept attributing all the signs of leeriness to our hypersensitivity... We discussed innocuously said off-colour remarks and dismissed their creepiness because we really respected him [the judge], and the possibility seemed at odds with everything we knew about him, his ideas about feminism, patriarchy, social justice...,” the website quoted from the second intern’s post.
The first intern had alleged that the judge had misbehaved with other women interns as well.
The second intern said as much. “In this case, we spoke to other women... and found out that there was a history to such behaviour.”
“We also alerted some female senior faculty to the incident so that they would ensure that no female student was assigned work with him without being told to be on her guard.”
The website further quotes her as saying “he promised, incidentally, that he would never misbehave with another lady. Maybe it’s naiveté to believe him. Maybe it’s just youthful optimism. Being brave is tougher than it appears on the face of it, no?”
The post then goes on say that the judge “lost his RA’s [research assistants] and got a dressing down from a 23-year-old which should have come from his father.
“Why deprive girls from the chance to work with an illustrious mind because the mind is a little sick? A guy who gets the task would get a savvy CV and a better job opp (opportunity). We didn’t want girls to be left at a disadvantage,” the post, as uploaded on Legally India, read.
Law student sexually
harassed by ex-Supreme Court judge: case is not unique, but speaking out is
nearly impossible
A law graduate who
recently blogged about how a retired Supreme Court judge sexually
assaulted her while she
was his intern, says that the problem is real and not uncommon amongst
the judiciary and senior
bar but that she sees few if any ways of tackling it.
Stella James, who
graduated from NUJS Kolkata this year and now works at the NGO Natural
Justice, Lawyers for
Communities and the Environment, wrote about an alleged incident of
physical, sexual assault
by an unnamed, retired Supreme Court judge in late 2012.
In a post that was
published on the blog of the NUJS Journal of Indian Law and Society on 6
November, she wrote about trying
to come to terms with her experience of 24 December 2012,
Christmas Eve,
ironically against the backdrop of the then-ongoing Delhi gang rape protests:
“In Delhi at that time,
interning during the winter vacations of my final year in University, I dodged
police barricades and
fatigue to go to the assistance of a highly reputed, recently retired Supreme
Court judge whom I was
working under during my penultimate semester. For my supposed
diligence, I was
rewarded with sexual assault (not physically injurious, but nevertheless
violating) from a man
old enough to be my grandfather. I won’t go into the gory details, but suffice
it to say that long
after I’d left the room, the memory remained, in fact, still remains, with me.”
“Frankly I was really
shocked,” James tells Legally India in an interview today. “There’s this
thing:
a person who is a
Supreme Court judge - you don’t expect a Supreme Court judge to harass
somebody.”
However, she says that
her experience was neither uncommon, nor merely restricted to the
judiciary: “I’ve heard
of three other cases [of sexual harassment] by the same judge and I know of
at least four other
girls who’ve faced harassment from other judges - not perhaps as [bad as
mine]: most of them were
in the chambers of the judge and other people around, so it never gets
too bad.
“A girl I know faced
continuous sexual harassment throughout and sexual advances, and actually
faced troubles through
her work because of it.” And she says she’s heard of Supreme Court
senior counsel who have
made passes at or have continuously harassed interns for longer
periods.
And though it is barely,
if at all, known outside legal circles, it is a bit of an open secret or a “big
joke” within the
profession, particularly among clerks and women working in the Supreme Court,
according to James.
“People in the Supreme
Court kind of know,” she says. “I did my internship through the college
[recruitment process].”
After beginning to share her experience with others in college, however,
James found that others
had also faced similar problems with the same judge.
James’ reasons for not
going public with the name of the judge or not lodging a formal complaint
are complex, both
morally and practically. On the one hand, she wrote in the blog post:
“I bore, and still bear,
no real ill-will towards the man, and had no desire to put his life’s work and
reputation in question.
On the other hand, I felt I had a responsibility to ensure that other young
girls were not put in a
similar situation. But I have been unable to find a solution that allows that.
Despite the heated
public debates, despite a vast army of feminist vigilantes, despite new
criminal laws and sexual
harassment laws, I have not found closure. The lack of such an
alternative led to my
facing a crippling sense of intellectual and moral helplessness.”
“I’d worked for him for
six months and he treated me really well for six months and has been
really kind to me,”
James explains. “It was rather strange to me but I haven’t really forgiven him
for it… [But] I don’t
know if I want to let myself - my impression of him as a person - be entirely
dictated by that act… My
leeway to him isn’t because he’s had a shining career and all that - part
of it is that – [but]
I’m not really sure I want to ruin somebody’s entire life because of that.”
“Once it gets out in the
open that he’s harassed other girls,” James says, “people will only look at
him in that light.”
However, James admits
that one other strong reason, which was not really touched upon in her
blog post, was concern
about whether legal action would even have any effect. James had
managed to reach two of
the other young women who were harassed by the same judge but
neither were willing to
come forward in public, mostly out of fear. “They don’t really want to
jeopordise their
careers,” James relates. “He’s a Supreme Court judge. If it’s going to be his
word
against our word, he’s
got more credibility, so to speak, of his words.”
And she adds that if she
by herself had wanted to take legal action, it would probably not have
been possible. “There
were no other witnesses, it was just me. It was a hotel room, [people] saw
me walking in
voluntarily, saw me walking out very calmly. I didn’t even walk out [with]
fear. At
that moment I felt I
needed to walk out very calmly. I never mentioned anything the same day to
anybody.”
Apart from the
evidentiary difficulty in proving the crime, the more serious problem for
lawyers is
perhaps inherent in the
profession itself. James said she had never heard of any official
harassment complaints
within the legal profession or against any judges. And while Legally India
understands that sexual
harassment complaints are at times made in law firms, most are handled
very delicately and
quietly, with the firm encouraging informal resolution.
In courts, it is even
worse, speculates James, in that there is usually no one you can realistically
complain to, unlike in a
company or college structure where harassed by a boss or lecturer, for
example, and where she
would have taken formal action in a similar incident. “Of course you can
file a criminal
complaint [against a judge or lawyer] but that’s a whole different level.” And
it is
also likely to impact
your career.
“I know a friend of mine
who was sexually harassed at the Karnataka high court,” says James.
That friend “wasn’t
keeping it a secret” and telling lawyer friends about why she left the job with
that senior, and for two
months afterwards she wasn’t able to find a job at the same court, being
asked about the incident
in interviews after it dripped through the court’s grapevine (she
eventually found a job
after deciding to evade the issue at interviews).
The mindset in such
cases often is, “she created trouble for him, she’ll create trouble for us”,
speculates James.
She says she was also
skeptical about the Supreme Court’s recently started sexual harassment
cell and guidelines improving
matters considerably. “It is often one person’s word against another
person’s word, and a lot
of people tend not to take the word” of a young lawyer against a senior
advocate who’s made his
reputation for 10 to 15 years. “There is a balance of power thing going
on here.”
The only thing that
James has been able to do, other than write the blog, is discuss the incident
with members of her alma
mater, possibly de-listing the judge from the recruitment process so
that others are not
exposed to similar experiences.
While James does feel
that colleges have a responsibility to protect their students, she
acknowledges that it
could be difficult. The judge in question has been closely associated with
her former college for a
while by giving lectures and regularly taking on research assistants, so
whether faculty can take
unequivocal action is not certain.
Nevertheless, James says
that potentially recruitment committees of colleges could make a
difference. “I think at
least – there should be some way, if not publicly then at least privately, kids
who go intern with a
judge should know that this has happened before.”
James says that she was
able to come forward, albeit without disclosing names, because of her
choice to work with an
NGO with a possible view to entering academia at some point in her
career.
“I was a little afraid,”
she admits. “The other friends I’ve spoken about, they are in positions where
these judges play an
important role [at the Supreme Court or teaching in a college and they] are
afraid of jeopardising
their careers. I don’t have such concerns here at Natural Justice - I have a
team that’s incredibly
supportive, and three colleagues were first to read the blog post [before
publication].
“For me, the great thing
is that I’m in an organisation where I know that if I come out in public
about it, we are 25
people, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have the entire team behind me.”
That lawyers elsewhere
are unlikely or unable to protect their own from sexual harassment, is a
problem the
profession will have to deal with sooner rather than later.
Update 12 November: The Chief Justice of
India has decided to institute a three-member
judicial committee to probe the allegation.
JUDGE SENDING OBSCENE SMS
TO WOMEN
Lucknow Taking
cognisance of the allegation against a civil Judge (junior division) of
Budaun court that he
sent obscene SMSes to a woman lecturer, the Registrar General of
Allahabad High Court
today sought a report from the district judge into the matter.
The civil judge of
Gunnor sub-division court of Budaun — Pramod Kumar Gangwar— was
accused of sending
obscene SMSes from his cellphone to a woman lecturer of Classic
College of Law,
Bareilly. A lecturer of the same college, Vivek Gupta, was named in the FIR
lodged by the victim
while Gangwar’s name surfaced in the primary investigation.
Registrar General Dinesh
Gupta said, “The district judge of Budaun has been asked to
send a detailed report
into the allegations. Appropriate action would be taken on the basis
of the report.”
District Judge Suresh
Kumar Srivastava said, “I have asked the Bareilly district police to
send a report about the
matter. The report on the basis of the police inquiry would be sent
to the Allahabad High
Court Registrar General.”
“I am not aware about
the matter, as the Bareilly police did not intimate me before initiating
the probe against the
civil judge. They should have informed me when they had received
any such complaint,” the
judge added.
Meanwhile, Bareilly CO
II Raj Kumar, who is investigating the case, today recorded the
statement of the victim.
“I have collected the call details of the cellphone used for sending
the SMSes, but I have
yet to get the address of the person who is subscriber of the SIM
card,” he said.
“The probe is on to
verify if the accused in the case were present on the location recorded
in the call details when
the SMSes were sent. The details of the findings of the
investigation would be
sent to the Budaun district court to seek the direction,” the CO
added.
Asked if the
investigation was earlier conducted into the matter, Raj Kumar said, “The SP
(Crime) had initiated
probe into the matter, but I am not aware if the investigation had
reached to any
conclusion.”
The woman lecturer had
lodged an FIR at the Mahila police station on Thursday alleging
she had received obscene
SMSes on her cellphone involving her colleague Vivek Gupta.
The preliminary inquiry
into the case by the police yesterday had found that the mobile
phone used in the crime
belongs to the civil judge.
IB confirms Mysore
Roost Resort sex scandal
The Intelligence Bureau
has provided the Centre with a detailed account of the escapade
involving three
Karnataka High Court judges on November 3 in a resort on the outskirts of
Mysore, highly placed
sources told The Times of India on Friday.
According to a senior
official, “Most of the information sought has not only confirmed the veracity
of the incident but the
government has crosschecked it with another police agency. Both the
reports match.”
The incident was widely
reported in the media. What has surprised the Centre is the “dogged
refusal” of the
Karnataka police to confirm the incident. “Mysore Police Commissioner C.
Chandrasekhar first
denied that the incident ever took place. Only when a public notice was
issued through the high court
registrar seeking information on the Mysore scandal, did the facts
come out in the open.
Public protest helped a lot,” says the source.
What transpired at the
resort, says the source, “cannot be expected from anyone in civil society,
leave alone persons
sworn to upholding the law”. According to him, “The IB report consists of
unmentionable facts and
also makes it amply clear that the Mysore incident is not the first time
such things have
happened. Can anyone expect upholders of the law to pick a fight with people
who complained to the
police when caught in a compromising position?”
In a related
development, Karnataka High Court Chief Justice N.K. Jain has written to Chief
Justice of India Justice
G.B. Pattanaik asking that three judges be transferred. Jain has proposed
that Justice N.S.
Veerabhadraiah be transferred to the Patna High Court, Justice
Chandrasekharaiah to
Jammu & Kashmir and Justice V. Gopala Gowda to the Gauhati High
Court.
While Jain is understood
not to have given any reasons, highly placed sources say the proposal
for transfers is linked
to the Mysore incident.
However, the source says
that now the government is worried about the appropriate “remedial
measures”. In such
cases, transferring a judge to a remote high court doesn’t always work. He
says, “Bar associations
and the people of northeastern states were up in arms when some
judges of the Punjab and
Haryana high courts were transferred there. We expect similar protests
if the CJI accepts
Justice Jain’s proposal to transfer the three judges of the Karnataka High
Court.”
The Bar Council of India
on Friday, while expressing its anguish at the Karnataka incident, called
for “follow-up action”.
“Unless prompt and
appropriate action is taken, it will erode the faith of public in the only
institution considered
to be the bastion of our fighting faith in democracy,” it said in a statement.
The BCI has “lamented”
inaction in this case by “the higher judiciary and the government”.
Read more: IB confirms Mysore sex
scandal – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/IB-confirms-Mysore-sexscandal/articleshow/29801662.cms#ixzz1B7PtvFdU
Lokayukta: DC demanded sex
from widow
In the midst of a
national outrage over former Haryana DGP SPS Rathore molesting a teenager,
the Karnataka Lokayukta
on Saturday made a startling revelation that the state government was
shielding a top bureaucrat
who had demanded sexual favours from a young widow.
Lokayukta Justice
Santosh Hegde disclosed that the official concerned, who was the deputy
commissioner of one of
the districts when he demanded sex from the widow in return for
discharging his duties
as public servant, has since been promoted to a senior position.
Justice Hegde, in the
course of an interaction with journalists at the Deccan Herald office
Saturday afternoon, said
the unnamed widow had dared the deputy commissioner and
approached the
Lokayukta’s office with a complaint against the officer.
On examination of the
complaint, the Lokayukta had found sufficient grounds to recommend to
the state government the
suspension and prosecution of the DC concerned. The
recommendation was
subsequently considered by the concerned department head as well as
the chief secretary and
both endorsed it.
But, according to
Justice Hegde, no action was initiated against the DC as the same official who
had endorsed the
recommendation subsequently found no basis for initiating departmental action
against him. Instead,
the official cleared the DC’s name for promotion in the super-scale.
Presently, the official
holds a senior position in the government.
The widow, in her late
20s, had approached the DC with a representation to sort out some
problems. But she was
shocked when the DC demanded sex.
Justice Hegde did not
identify the official in question or the complainant. Nor did he offer to name
the district where the
official was serving as deputy commissioner. But the incident has
happened sometime in the
course of last three years as Justice Hegde took over as the
Lokayukta in mid-2006.
3-year jail term for
‘dirty’ judge
Family court judge
Ramrao Gangaram Bhise attempted to get sexual favours from a housewife in
1997
Family court judge
Ramrao Gangaram Bhise’s attempts to extract sexual favours, in addition to a
bribe, from a housewife,
Alka Gaikwad — who had sought an increase in her monthly
maintenance allowance
from her estranged husband, in 1997 — proved costly to him.
Pronouncing him guilty
on both counts, the special court hearing anti-corruption bureau (ACB)
matters sentenced him to
three years rigorous imprisonment and a collective fine of Rs55, 000,
on Monday.
According to the FIR in
the case registered against Bhise by the ACB, Suryakant Gaikwad had
filed for divorce from
his wife, Alka, before the Bandra family court. Alka, a housewife, in turn,
filed a petition seeking
mutual cohabitation with her husband. The then family court judge, Meera
Khadakkar, directed the
husband to pay her an interim maintenance allowance of Rs750 per
month.
Subsequently, in January
1997, Alka filed another application before the same family court (now
presided over by Bhise)
seeking to increase the monthly maintenance amount to Rs3,500. “On
October 27, 1997, Bhise
issued an interim order, increasing the maintenance allowance to
Rs2,000 to be paid by
Suryakan to his estranged wife till the disposal of the case. Immediately
after issuing the order,
Bhise asked Alka to meet him and gave her his residential telephone
number, asking her to
call him when the court hours ended. He told her that he would ask her
husband to pay her a
lump sum of Rs2 lakh in addition to the monthly maintenance, provided she
called him up,” the FIR
states.
When she called up the
judge at 7 pm the same day, Bhise told her that she would have to pay
him a sum of Rs2,000 in
addition to granting his sexual favours if she wanted an order in her
favour. He also directed
her to meet him at the Haji Ali bus stop with the bribe amount the
following evening.
“Alka approached the
ACB, which sought permission from the Chief Justice of the Bombay High
Court before laying a
trap on the first class judicial magistrate (Bhise). The HC while granting the
permission designated a
court official to bear witness to the events leading to the trap. Alka,
under video camera
surveillance of ACB sleuths, along with the court official and other women
witnesses met Bhise at
8.30 pm at the Haji Ali bus stop. Bhise took hold of Alka’s wrist and when
she protested, repeated
his demands,” the FIR states.
Alka was then taken to a
nearby hotel, Sharda, where the judge accepted the bribe amount. But
before he could do
anything else, ACB sleuths swooped in and arrested him.
Rajasthan judge is
indicted for seeking sexual favours
Chief Justice of India G
B Pattanaik retires tonight and he doesn’t have much to write home about
on the unprecedented
drive he launched to enforce judicial accountability.
After the PPSC scam
fiasco, reported in The Indian Express today, comes the case of the
Rajasthan judge who has
been indicted in a sex scandal and yet has escaped action—pending
another inquiry.
On December 14, a
three-judge committee set up by Pattanaik confirmed the ‘‘involvement’’ of
Justice Arun Madan of
the Rajasthan High Court in a proposition to a woman doctor to have sex
with him in exchange for
a judicial favour.
The committee, headed by
the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice B K
Roy, submitted its
report to Pattanaik, indicting Madan on a complaint made from Jodhpur by the
woman concerned, Sunita
Malviya.
But Pattanaik has not
announced any action against Madan. When contacted by The Indian
Express, Pattanaik
confirmed that the committee had indicted Madan and his ‘‘bad reputation’’ in
seeking sexual favours
in return for judicial ones.
However, Pattanaik said
that no action was being taken since the committee had also mentioned
allegations of
corruption against Madan. And so he had ordered a further inquiry by the same
committee into the
corruption charges.
When asked what he did
with the indictment of Madan in the sex scandal, Pattanaik said, ‘‘That
is on hold because I
could not have taken piecemeal action against him….I am praying to God
that the final report
will give some tangible material to take action.’’
Highly placed sources
told The Indian Express that when the committee recorded statements last
week in Jodhpur of about
30 persons over four days, it also came to know of several allegations
of corruption against
Madan and another judge of the same high court. The committee put these
on record as well.
Pattanaik said that when
he summoned Madan to New Delhi last week, he did not raise the sex
scandal issue and
instead limited himself to saying that he was ordering a further inquiry into
corruption allegations.
In effect, Pattanaik has
now passed the Rajasthan buck to his successor Justice V N Khare.
The gist of Malviya’s
complaint is that Madan made a sexual proposition to her in October
through a deputy registrar
of the high court, Govind Kalwani, who said that the judge would help
her, in turn, get out of
a criminal case booked against her.
With this, Pattanaik’s
much-touted in-house judicial accountability seems to have hit a wall. The
first committee’s report
into the PPSC scam exonerated one judge despite evidence and let two
others off with a mere
slap on the wrist. The third committee is now busy probing the involvement
of judges in the Mysore
sex scam.
Ten reasons why criminals
in khaki get away
Siddharth Varadarajan
Behind every man like
S.P.S. Rathore who abuses his authority stand the generals and
footsoldiers who help
and support him. We need to take them all down.
S.P.S. Rathore, the
criminal former top cop of Haryana, may appear alone today but we must
never forget that he was
able to get away with the sexual molestation of a young child and the
illegal harassment of
her family for 19 years because he had hundreds of men who supported
him in his effort to
evade justice.
The fact that these men
– fellow police officers, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers, judges, school
administrators – were
willing to bend the system to accommodate a man accused of molesting a
minor speaks volumes for
the moral impoverishment of our establishment and country. Decent
societies shun those
involved in sexual offences against children. Even criminals jailed for
`ordinary' crimes like
murder treat those serving time for molesting children as beyond the pale.
But in India, men like
Rathore have their uses for their masters, so the system circles its wagons
and protects them.
The CBI's appeal may
lead to the enhancement of Rathore's sentence and perhaps even the
slapping of abetment to
suicide charges, since his young victim killed herself to put an end to the
criminal intimidation
her family was being subjected to by Rathore and his men. But the systemic
rot which the case has
exposed will not be remedied unless sustained public pressure is put on
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, two men who have
it in their power to
push for simple remedies in the way the Indian law enforcement and justice
delivery system works.
First, abolish the need
for official, i.e. political sanction to prosecute bureaucrats, policemen and
security forces
personnel when they are accused of committing crimes. The original intent
behind
this built-in
stay-out-of-jail card was to protect state functionaries from acts done in the
course of
discharging their duties
in good faith. Somewhere along the line, this has come to mean
protecting our
custodians of law and order when they murder innocent civilians (eg. the
infamous
Panchalthan case in
Kashmir where the trial of army men indicted by the CBI for murdering five
villagers in 2000 still
cannot take place because the Central government will not grant
permission), or assault
or molest women and children. No civilised, democratic society grants
such impunity. It is
disgusting to see former officials and bureaucrats from Haryana saying how
they had wanted Rathore
prosecuted but were prevented from doing so because of pressure.
Such officials should
either be made formally to testify in a criminal case against the politicians
who so pressured them or
they should themselves be hauled up for perverting the course of
justice.
Second, stop talking
about how making the police and army answerable to the law will somehow
demoralise their morale.
Does anybody care about the morale of ordinary citizens any more? Or
the morale of upright
police and army officers, who do not think it is right for their colleagues to
be
able to get away with
criminal acts?
Third, bring an end to
the cosy relationship between the police and politicians. Rathore was
protected by four chief
ministers of Haryana. He served them and they served him by ensuring
his unfettered rise. It
is absurd that the Indian Police is still governed by a colonial-era Act dating
back to 1861. A number
of commissions have made recommendations for reforming the police
over the years; but no
government or political party wants to give up its ability to use and misuse
the police for
their own benefit
Fourth, ensure that
police officers who abuse their authority and engage in mala fide
prosecutions are
dismissed from service and sentenced to jail for a long period of time. Mr.
Chidambaram should use
the considerable resources at his command to find out who were the
policemen involved in
filing 11 bogus cases against the teenaged brother of the young girl
Rathore molested. He
should then make sure criminal proceedings are initiated against all of
them. The message must
go out to every policeman in the country: If you abuse the law at the
behest of a superior,
you will suffer legal consequences.
Fifth, ensure that
criminal charges against law enforcement personnel are fast-tracked as a
matter of routine so
that a powerful defendant is not able to use his position to delay proceedings
the way Rathore did for
years on end. The destruction or disappearance of material evidence in
such cases must be
treated as a grave offence with strict criminal liability imposed on the
individual responsible
for breaking the chain of custody.
Sixth, empower the
National Human Rights Commission with teeth so that police departments
and state governments
cannot brush aside their orders as happened in the Rathore case. This
would also require
appointing to the NHRC women and men who have a proven record of
defending human rights
in their professional life, something that is done today only in the breach.
The attitude of the
Manmohan Singh government to this commission and others like the National
Commission for Women
(NCW) and National Commission for Minorities is shocking. Vacancies
are not filled for
months on end.
Seventh, ensure the
early enactment of pending legislation broadening the ambit of sexual
crimes, including sexual
crimes against children. Between rape, defined as forced penetrative
sex, and the vague,
Victorian-era crime of `outraging the modesty of a woman', the Indian Penal
Code recognises no other
form of sexual violence. As a result, all forms of sexual molestation
and assault short of
rape attract fairly lenient punishment, of the kind Rathore got. In his case,
the
judge did not even hand
down the maximum sentence, citing concerns for the criminal's age.
Sadly, he did not take
into account the age of the victim and neither does the IPC, which fails to
distinguish between
`outraging the modesty' of an adult woman and a young child.
A draft law changing
these provisions and bringing India into line with the rest of the modern
world has been pending with
the NCW and Law Ministry for years. Perhaps the government may
now be shamed into
pushing it through Parliament at the earliest.
Eighth, take steps to
introduce a system of protection of witnesses and complainants. The fate
that the family of
Rathore's young victim had to endure is testament to the fact that people who
seek justice in India do
so at their own peril.
Ninth, ensure that
robust interrogation techniques like narco-analysis, which are routinely used
against other alleged
criminals, are also employed against police officers accused of crimes.
Tenth, the media and the
higher judiciary must also turn the light inward and ask themselves
whether they were also
derelict in their duty. The Rathore case did not attract the kind of constant
media attention it
deserved, nor do other cases involving serving police officers accused of
crimes against women,
workers, peasants and minorities. As for the upper courts, their record is
too patchy to inspire
confidence. It was, after all, the high court which chose to disregard the
CBI's request for
including abetment to suicide charges.
Keywords: Siddharth Varadarajan, S.P.S. Rathore, criminals, khaki, former DGP of
Haryana, custodians, sexual violence, NHRC
Porbandar judge accused of
dowry harassment
A complaint has been
filed against District and Sessions judge of Porbandar for allegedly
harassing his
daughter-in-law for dowry, police said here on Sunday.
Darshana Dave, a native
of Amreli, has filed a complaint against her husband Kinnar, father-inlaw
and district judge
Arvind Dave, mother-in-law Pratibha and brother-in-law Prashant, the
police added.
Darshana married Kinnar
two years ago. Her complaint says that she was harassed from the
beginning, and was even
beaten up by the husband and in-laws, who were demanding Rs 10
lakh as dowry.
She has also alleged
that she was thrown out of the house a few months back, and her husband
is now seeking divorce,
the police said.
Amreli Superintendent of
Police H R Muliyana confirmed to have received the complaint against
the judge and others. He
said that action will be taken after verifying the complaint.
This is the second
complaint related to dowry harassment filed against a judge in the state in the
recent past.
Earlier, a woman had
filed a complaint against additional sessions judge of Jetpur after her
daughter and the judge's
wife committed suicide.
Gurgaon judge to also face
dowry harassment charge
Gurgaon's Chief Judicial
Magistrate Ravneet Garg, booked for the murder of his wife, will also
face dowry harassment
charge, police here said Monday.
Police have issued
notices to the CJM's father K.K. Garg and mother Rachna Garg, who have
also been named in the
dowry harassment case.
The CJM's father reached
here Monday morning from Haryana's Panchkula town and contacted
police, who wanted to
question him.
"We had called
CJM's parents...K.K. Garg was questioned by special investigation team
(SIT),"
Gurgaon Police
Commissioner Alok Mittal said.
Mittal said on the basis
of written complaint filed by the parents of the CJM's wife Geetanjali,
penal sections of dowry
harassment and extra-marital affair were included in the FIR lodged
against the CJM
Saturday.
Geetanjali, 24, bore
three bullet wounds - on her chin, chest and stomach - but no bullets were
found in her body that
was recovered here Thursday. The CJM's licensed firearm was found near
the body, police said.
Mittal said two bullets
were seized from the scene of crime and would be sent for ballistic
examination Monday, a
day after ballistic experts examined the crime spot.
"The SIT Sunday
questioned two women relatives of Ravneet Garg for hours at his government
allotted house here in
the Officers Colony," said Mittal.
"We have asked CJM
to produce supporting evidences to prove his statement," he said.
The CJM allegedly said
that his driver and domestic help may throw some light on his wife's
death.
Judge Garg's in-laws
alleged that two cars were provided to the accused on his and his family's
demand. Rs.2 lakh were
also delivered to him at the time of the admission of his daughters in
school in May.
Geetanjali's brother
Pradeep Aggarwal Saturday lodged a first information report against Garg
and his parents,
accusing them of murder.
"Ravneet and
Geetanjali got married in November 2007. Everything was fine for a few years
but
the attitude of Ravneet
and his parents towards Geetanjali started changing after she delivered
two baby girls (now aged
around four and a half and three years)," Aggarwal said in his
complaint.
He demanded a probe by
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into his sister's murder.
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