Former SC staffer alleges Chief Justice of India sexually harassed her in affidavit to 22 judges

A woman (35), who used to work as a junior court assistant at the Supreme Court of India, has written to 22 judges of the court on April 19, alleging that Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi made sexual advances towards her at his residential office on October 10 and 11, 2018.

She reportedly wrote, “He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go.”

According to the woman, he said to her, “Hold me” and did not let her go though she froze and tried to escape from his embrace.

The Secretary General of the Supreme Court of India responded vide email rubbishing the allegations and calling them, “completely and absolutely false and scurrilous”.

The email said, “It is also very possible that there are mischievous forces behind all this, with an intention to malign the institution.”

The woman said in her affidavit that she was moved out of the CJI’s residence office after she rebuffed him. Two months later on December 21, she was dismissed from service. Among the three grounds for her dismissal detailed in the inquiry report was that she had taken one day’s casual leave without approval.

The former junior court assistant alleged in her sworn affidavit that the harassment did not stop at her dismissal but went on to engulf her entire family. Her husband and brother-in-law, both of whom were head constables with the Delhi Police, were suspended on December 28, 2018, for a criminal case involving a colony dispute dating back to 2012 that had been mutually resolved.