Supreme Court dismisses plea in support of Justice Ganguly; Ganguly likely to resign as WBHRC Chair

The Supreme Court today dismissed the petition filed by Dr. Padma Narayan Singh seeking quashing of the complaint against former Supreme Court Judge Justice AK Ganguly by a law intern..A bench comprising CJI Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi also dismissed another petition by one Uday Gupta challenging the administrative order of the 3 member Committee saying that it had no jurisdiction over the matter..In her petition, Singh had claimed that the allegations against Justice Ganguly was a well planned criminal conspiracy involving Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising, Football club Mohan Bagan, the All India Football Federation and the law intern..The petition stated that,.“..the media is being provoked, misguided and abused by the damaging deception created by the woman lawyer Indira Jaising to target Justice AK Ganguly…..the woman lawyer Indira Jaising is attempting repeatedly to get Justice AK Ganguly arrested and to get him removed for his current post of government job for achieving her vicious double aims. Firstly, to climb the ladder of the system of hierarchy to secure a higher post with the Union of India. Secondly to project herself as a tremendous activist….”.Alleging that the purpose behind the allegations goes back to the illegal demand of Rs. 2 crore made by Mohan Bagan from AIFF, the petition also stated that the claims made by the intern did not constitute sexual harassment under the Sexual Harassment Act, 2013. Singh had also claimed that Ganguly could not be prosecuted under the Act as the Act did not have retrospective effect because the allegations dated back to a period when the Act was not in the statute book..In the light of these, she had inter alia prayed for quashing the complaint against J. Ganguly and revoking the “practice license” of Additional Solicitor General, Indira Jaising..The Court however dismissed Singh’s petition stating, “We are not inclined to entertain this petition…it is not a matter of consideration by this court at this juncture.”.Justice Ganguly, who is under tremendous pressure to resign as Chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), is reportedly contemplating submitting his resignation, and has confided the same to former Attorney General, Soli Sorabjee. J. Ganguly reportedly told Sorabjee that he doesn’t want to face the embarrassment of a Presidential reference seeking his removal as head of the commission. The same report indicates that J. Ganguly is likely to submit his resignation to West Bengal Governor MK Narayanan soon..Last week, J. Ganguly resigned from his post as guest lecturer at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata (NUJS), stating that he did not wish to be a “burden” on the institute.