Sexual harassment at the workplace: CJI seeks a status update after a letter from a UP woman judge seeking permission to end her life goes viral
On December 14, 2023 (Thursday), Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud sought a status report from the Allahabad High Court after a women judge in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district alleged sexual harassment at the workplace by District judge and his associates in a letter. The CJI directed Atul M Kurhekhar (SC Secretary General) to seek a status update. Further to collect information about all the complaints made by the woman judge, Kurhekhar wrote a letter to the Allahabad HC’s Registrar General. These orders were given after the letter by the women judge to CJI went viral on social media where she stated that she was deeply hurt because of the disrespectful behavior of the senior district judge.
On December 04, the woman judge filed a petition before the SC which was heard on December 13, 2023, by a two-judge bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Sandeep Mehta. The bench ordered, “Since the Internal Complaints Committee is already in session of the matter and a resolution is already passed which is pending approval of the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, we see no reason to entertain this writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India.” On Thursday, the letter of the woman judge went public where she expressed disappointment towards the decision of the SC as the bench dismissed the case after hearing it for eight seconds.
In the letter, she wrote “It took six months and a thousand emails just to start an enquiry. The proposed enquiry is also a farce and a sham. The witnesses in the enquiry are immediate subordinates of the district judge. How the committee expects the witnesses to depose against their boss is beyond my understanding.” She added, “In the short time of my service, I have had the rare honor of being abused on dias in open court. I have been sexually harassed to the very limit. I have been treated like utter garbage. I feel like an unwanted insect. And I hoped to provide justice to others. What naive me!” Along with this, the woman judge said that she was told to meet the District Judge at night.
She added that no action was taken by the Chief Justice of Allahabad HC after she complained about the same, “No one even bothered to ask me: What happened, why are you distressed?” The woman judge, in a letter to the CJI, wrote “I have no will to live anymore. I have been rendered to a Walking Corpse in the last year and a half. There is no purpose in carrying this soulless and lifeless body around anymore. There is no purpose left in my life. Kindly permit me to end my life in a dignified way.”
