Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Supreme Court today appointed a three member panel to probe into a sexual misdemeanour charge by an intern on a recently retired judge. While the woman lawyer has not named the judge she has expressed her horror and anguish over the experience she faced. The matter was placed before the court on Tuesday by Attorney General GE Vahanvati. The court by then had already formed a committee of Justice comprising of Justice RM Lodha, Justice HL Dattu and Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai to look into the candour of the matter and the events detailed therein.
The woman who graduated from National University of Juridical Sciences (Kolkata), revealed her experience through her blog dated November 6, 2013. She mentions that the incident took place on December 24, while the whole country was in an uproar about the Delhi gang rape case which transpired just six days before her own ordeal. Called upon for assistance by the Judge who had assisted her in her last but one year at college, she rushed past all the police and security restrictions placed rampantly across the city. She had been in the city working through her winter holidays internship of her final year. Upon reaching the hotel of the Judge, she was subjected to violent sexual assault by the judge who she said was 'old enough to be my grandfather.'
She said that anyone who might have seen her that day would have noted that she had calmly and voluntarily walked into the room as well as composed herself when she walked out much later. She did not speak of the incident with anyone on that day. She expressed her regret over not revealing these facts sooner, but she also expressed that while she bore no ill will towards the Judge concerned, she also felt that she needed to speak out for the sake of other girls in similar situations. She also revealed that she knew of at least four other girls who had faced similar treatment at the hands of the same Judge.
Her reason for talking of the incident nearly a year later, was that she held no ill-feelings towards the man, but only that the respect and trust she had placed in the him were shattered mercilessly. She felt immense sadness at all that had transpired. Mostly she questions the absence of extreme anger against her assaulter - which is the expected reaction in the given circumstances. All of what she revealed has come to light through her blog and in her interview with Legally India Magazine.