[At the emergency hearing on Saturday, Chief Justice Gogoi denied the allegations against him. According to a lawyer who provided notes from the hearing, the chief justice implied that the allegations were part of a broader conspiracy and said “the judiciary of this country is under very, very serious threat.”]
By
Jeffrey Gettleman
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Chief
Justice Ranjan Gogoi of India’s Supreme Court at his swearing-in ceremony
in
October. He
has denied sexually harassing a former assistant. Credit
Chandan Khanna/ Agence
France-Presse — Getty Images
|
NEW
DELHI — 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, Chief
Justice 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 that “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
apologize to the chief justice’s wife (even though she felt there was nothing
to apologize 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 around 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.
Mr. Gogoi, 64, was appointed chief justice in
October and came into office with high expectations. He was known as witty,
intelligent and fiercely independent; before he became chief justice, he had
spoken out publicly about problems at the court.
But he has since disappointed many observers
of the court, who feel that several of his decisions were intended to please
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. In December, for example, he ruled
there were no grounds to doubt the legality of a contentious jet fighter
contract that the government awarded to a French company and an Indian
counterpart with little experience in defense manufacturing.
At the emergency hearing on Saturday, Chief
Justice Gogoi denied the allegations against him. According to a lawyer who
provided notes from the hearing, the chief justice implied that the allegations
were part of a broader conspiracy and said “the judiciary of this country is
under very, very serious threat.”
Chief Justice 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.
India has had its own #MeToo movement, but
many sexual harassment allegations against powerful men have been dismissed.
One junior minister, M.J. Akbar, was forced to resign last year after numerous
women complained that he had sexually harassed them.
Chief Justice Gogoi seems to be the
highest-ranking Indian official in recent years to have been seriously accused
of inappropriate sexual behavior.
Among the assistant’s more troubling
allegations is the way she says she was dismissed. In her affidavit, the
assistant, whose name has been withheld by the Indian news media, said she
fainted right before she was to appear in front of an employment committee for
a hearing on her possible dismissal. Indian news outlets published what was
said to be a doctor’s note confirming that the woman had had a panic attack.
But instead of adjourning the hearing until
the assistant could be present, the committee apparently went ahead and fired
her.
A few months later, according to the
affidavit, the assistant was arrested on bribery charges, which she says were
fabricated to discredit her.
Kai Schultz contributed reporting.
