Madhya Pradesh judge resigns after judicial officer she accused of harassment made High Court judge

Aditi Kumar Sharma, a Civil Judge from Madhya Pradesh's Shahdol, has resigned from service after the judicial officer she had accused of harassment was recently made a judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.

Her resignation came just hours after the Central government cleared the elevation of District Judge Rajesh Kumar Gupta to the Madhya Pradesh High Court. Judge Gupta is yet to take oath.

In her resignation letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, Sharma wrote,

"With every ounce of my moral strength and emotional exhaustion, I hereby resign from judicial service not because I lost faith in justice, but because justice lost its way inside the very institution sworn to protect it."

She described her decision as "a statement of protest" and added,

"Let it remain in your archives as a reminder that there once was a woman judge in Madhya Pradesh who gave her all to justice, and was broken by the system that preached it the loudest."

The resignation follows a series of complaints Sharma made earlier this year to the President of India and the Supreme Court Collegium, urging them to reconsider Gupta’s elevation. Sharma was also one of the six women judges who were removed from service by the Madhya Pradesh government in June 2023.

The termination orders were passed by the law department following an administrative committee and a full court meeting of High Court judges, which found their performance during the probation period unsatisfactory.

The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the termination, and ultimately directed the reinstatement of all six judges, including Sharma.

The Supreme Court Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh had in that judgment directed the Madhya Pradesh High Court to show “greater sensitivity” toward women judges and noted that “justice must also be seen to be done within judicial institutions.”

Following that order, Sharma resumed duties as Civil Judge (Junior Division) in Shahdol in March 2024.

In her letters from July 2025, Sharma had written to both the President and the Supreme Court Collegium, urging that “a person against whom there are serious unresolved allegations must not be rewarded with elevation.” She said her case was not just about personal hardship but also about systemic indifference.

Two other judicial officers had also submitted detailed complaints about Rajesh Kumar Gupta's conduct.

Despite these written complaints, there is no indication that the High Court initiated any inquiry into the allegations. The Supreme Court Collegium had recommended Gupta’s name in early July 2025. The Centre cleared the recommendation by July 28.

Speaking to Bar & Bench before his elevation was cleared, Gupta had said,

"These all people always start all these things, there have been never any complaints against me. I have lived my entire life like a saint. It has been 35 years I have been working and there have been no complaints against me. My retirement is also very close, rest High Court can confirm all the details, but I have not received any communication from the High Court in this regard."

In her resignation letter, Sharma wrote,

"Shri Rajesh Kumar Gupta who orchestrated my suffering was not questioned, was rewarded, recommended, elevated, given a pedestal instead of a summons. The man I accused not lightly, not anonymously, but with documented facts and the raw courage only a wounded woman can summon was not even asked to explain. No inquiry. No notice. No hearing. No accountability is now titled Justice, a cruel joke upon the very word."

She ended the letter with a message directed at the institution:

"You refused to protect one of your own. You refused to uphold the principles you preach. You refused to be just where it mattered the most."