Ganguly complains to CJI, says not addressed correctly by SC

Denying that he had ever harassed or made any unwelcome advance to any intern, former Supreme Court judge A K Ganguly today complained to Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam saying he was not addressed correctly by the apex court.

"I have been distressed by some recent happenings. I am anguished that the Supreme Court under your lordship did not address me correctly," Justice Ganguly said in an eight-page-long letter to the CJI, which he said was also being forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee.

Stating that after deep consideration of all that was going on in the media with reference to some allegations of an intern against him, Ganguly said he was constrained to break his silence.

"First of all, I wish to make it clear that I never harassed nor did I make any unwelcome advances to any female intern. The very suggestion of it, to say the least, is out of tune with my personal conduct," said Justice Ganguly, who is the Chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission.

"I have made helpful contributions to many interns both male and female. To this date, I am treated with unbound respect and regards by them," he wrote in the letter.

In his letter, Ganguly alleged "There is a concerted move to tarnish my image as I had the unfortunate duty of rendering certain judgments against powerful interests."

He said: "I see in the whole game a palpable design to malign me at the instance of interested quarters."

Raising questions about the three-judge committee of the Supreme Court constituted to probe the allegations, he argued that since the girl intern was not on the rolls of the Supreme Court and he was a retired judge, the committee was "not required to be constituted".

"No complaint was ever made before Supreme Court or before your lordship in any form by the intern at any time prior to the formation of the judges' committee and presumably at the direction of the committee she gave her statement," he said.

Ganguly said a newspaper report dated December 12 without any verification could certainly not have been the basis of a petition by the Attorney General on which the Chief Justice was reported to have acted.

"Thus the stated reason that the committee was set up to find out whether the judge was a sitting judge cannot be accepted because the blog expressly disclosed retired judge," he said.

Complaining against the conduct of the officials of the court, he said as soon as he entered he was surrounded by a posse of officers which was unbecoming of the institution.

"I was treated as a person in captivity," he rued.