Two days after resigning from the post of West Bengal Human Rights Commission Chairman following allegations of sexual harassment by an ex-student and law intern, former Supreme Court Judge Ashok Ganguly tended to fall back on Gandhigiri to hammer home his point insisting he, being a teacher of her stated victim, would never slap a libel suit against her.
“I will prefer going to jail rather than filing defamation against a student,” Ganguly told a Bangla news channel adding how being a teacher to the woman he could “never take action against her regardless of what she did to me.” He said, “I started my career as a teacher and think that it is a noble profession where there can be no animosity between a teacher and a student,” wishing the woman success in life. Justice Ganguly had been a visiting faculty at NUJS Kolkata where the woman was reportedly a student.
He, however, insisted that he would “definitely fight my case if she files any complaint against me.” Notwithstanding his no-first-strike pledge, the retired Judge wondered as to why the girl who had charged him with “unwelcome conduct” on the stated day of occurrence did not go out of the hotel room immediately after his alleged unwelcome overtures. “I fail to understand why she stayed back till lunch with me despite my alleged misconduct.” The reported incident took place in December last year at a Delhi five star hotel where Justice Ganguly had called the girl for taking dictations for an arbitration order.
The former WBHRC chief who was particularly vocal against Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who was “virtually running a totalitarian regime” said how the Chief Minister “who used to call me a Dada and got me posted as the WBHRC Chairman soon started criticising me in public for my principled orders though I never hit back.”
The former Rights Panel chief reminisced how his verdicts in cartoon controversy, Shiladitya Chowdhury case, Kamduni rape case did not go down well with the State Government which was at the receiving end of the orders. “It then started attacking me from all sides. The Chief Minister spoke against me without taking my name at the State Assembly though I did not hit back.” He added Bengal was witnessing a “totalitarian regime” which “does not like a powerful human rights commission.”
That the people’s confidence in WBHRC grew after his coming to office was proved by the rising number of cases that grew from 5,000 to more than 7,000 when he left Justice Ganguli said adding the Government was not ready to take orders from an assertive State Rights Panel.
The retired Judge also questioned the steps taken by “my former colleagues” in the Supreme Court who reportedly acted without jurisdiction. He wondered how the Apex Court could initiate administrative inquiry against former Judges. “Did they not know that I was not a sitting JudgeIJ” he said adding he “do not want to make comments against the Supreme Court of world’s largest democracy. But it is beyond my comprehension as to how they worked like this!”
On whether the Congress could be behind his alleged victimisation the retired Judge refused comments, “I should not make wild comments.” Meanwhile, refuting the charges, Trinamool Congress MP Saugato Roy said it was not the State Government that initiated any action against her “rather it was the woman who wrote a blog and the Supreme Court took action. It was only after the Supreme Court found a prima facie case that Mamata Banerjee wrote to the President seeking action,” he said.