Justice Ganguly’s resignation papers forwarded to Prez
Retired Supreme Court Judge Ashok Ganguly, who on Monday tendered his resignation as West Bengal Human Rights Commission Chairman, once again rubbished charges of sexual harassment leveled against him by a former law intern.
Meanwhile, in a relevant development, an earlier move by Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee to bring in former State DGP and a reportedly ‘obedient’ police officer Naparajit Mukherjee as a Member of the Commission seemed to yield results with reports coming from the WBHRC saying that Mukherjee would now act as a temporary Chairman of the Rights Panel.
Justice Ganguly reportedly argued in his hand-written resignation letter to Governor MK Narayanan that the charges brought against him were baseless rendering impossible his continuation on the current post with dignity and honour.
The former Judge of the 2G fame who earlier complained of victimisation by powerful interests said he had no attachment for any post sans dignity adding under the given circumstances it was not possible for him to continue as the WBHRC chief with dignity.
On the Presidential reference seeking his removal from the WBHRC post, Justice Ganguly said the recommendations made to the President seeking his removal were based on “untenable” and “misconceived” grounds.
The resignation was on Tuesday forwarded to the President for his consideration, sources at the Governor’s House said, even as Justice Ganguly told the media at his residence that he did not want to continue in his post. The State Government was also intimated about his resignation, sources said.
Justice Ganguly, who refused to speak to the media, had on Monday evening met the Governor for about 40 minutes sparking speculations about his final moves to resign. Before this, he had held discussions with former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee who had reportedly suggested him to tender his resignation.
The former Judge had been under intense pressure from all quarters after the Supreme Court took cognisance of a blog post from the reported victim alleging sexual harassment by him about a year ago. Though Justice Ganguly tried to remain defiant, he finally gave up in the face of a Presidential reference to the apex court on the issue.
Incidentally much like the Congress-led UPA, the State Government had suffered immensely at the hands of WBHRC during Justice Ganguly’s tenure with him passing a host of human rights violation orders against the Government officials.
At least two of those cases involved the Chief Minister herself. In fact, it was Banerjee who was among the firsts to right letter to President Pranab Mukherjee demanding action against Justice Ganguly reportedly to avenge the orders against the Government.
Meanwhile, former lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and senior Calcutta High Court lawyers on Tuesday once again questioned the “public molestation of the criminal law system of the country at the hands of those who are in power.”
A visibly irked Chatterjee said he “do not want to know who the woman bringing the charge is” adding “if a person has to quit just on the basis of allegation then it will only prove that there is no rule of law in our country.”
Arunabha Ghosh, a senior advocate in Calcutta High Court and a Pradesh Congress member, smelt Trinamool Congress’ hands in the “entire game” adding “the whole drama has the Trinamool Congress behind it” accusing Trinamool MP Darek O Brien for pulling the strings from behind.