Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 1, 2022 at 21:17 IST
In a case involving the inquiry process into allegations of sexual harassment against judges, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered its Secretary General, who serves as the administrative head of the Court, to submit his response within four weeks.
After Senior Counsel Indira Jaising emphasised that the Secretary General had not yet submitted an affidavit, a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Oka, and Vikram Nath ordered him to present his position within 4 weeks.
“Additionally, learned senior counsel claims that she would want to provide some additional information due to the passage of time and the evolution of the processes, as well as to have the Secretary General’s position on the practises recorded. Allow the petitioner four weeks to provide the same on record,” the Judge said.
An appeal by a law student accusing a former Supreme Court Justice of sexual harassment was being heard by the Supreme Court. The Delhi High Court had issued a gag order to the judge against the media.
Since, Jaising maintained that the relief presently sought was restricted to the procedure to deal with sexual harassment claims against judges, the Bench withdrew the accused judge from the list of parties during yesterday’s hearing.
“The petitioner’s learned counsel suggests that respondent Nos. 2 and 3 be removed from the list of parties because no relief is sought from them. Accordingly arranged,” the Judge ordered.
The case has now been listed for hearing on November 15 of this year.