Sexual harassment charges against me concocted, high court judge tells Supreme Court

The Madhya Pradesh High Court judge SK Gangele, facing sexual abuse allegations, told the Supreme Court that the former woman judge (complainant) of a Gwalior court has cooked up the sexual harassment theory against him after he refused to cancel her transfer order. It is also her attempt to get her service back.

The woman judge had tendered resignation voluntarily as she was against her transfer and was not interested in getting posted at any other places than of her choice. She had cited the career of her daughters in the resignation letter, the high court judge said.

"The petitioner (woman judge) was not a disciplined member of the judiciary and after an elapsation of 15 days after the glory of the post she had formerly held, she levied reckless allegations and concocted a story in an attempt to get herself reinstated in service," Justice SK Gangele said while denying all the allegations levelled by her against him.

Filing his response to the woman judge's petition before the apex court, the high court judge vehemently denied that she was subjected to any sexual harassment.

"She has cooked up the sexual harassment theory in order to take undue favours. The sexual harassment imputations are cropping up out of the blue without any prior instances and seem to have been added as an afterthought in an attempt to malign his name (accused judge) as a ticket to get the petitioner reinstated in service," he said.

The high court judge also denied making any in appropriate remarks against her at the marriage anniversary of the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Gwalior held in February this year.

"The respondent (Gangele) had no occasion to personally interact with the woman judge and hence, there was no occasion to ever make any such remark to her...," Gangele said.

He mentioned some names of her colleagues in a trial court and contended that the she has been on a 'campaign' to defame the judiciary and some of its sitting judges.

Claiming that he never interacted with her personally except receiving her three telephone calls regarding her entitlement of a peon at her bungalow and also for cancellation of her transfer order, he said he had not given any instruction to any staff to inspect her court room.

In a plea before the Supreme Court, the woman judge has sought quashing f two-judge committee set up by the MP High Court Chief Justice to probe into the allegations of sexual harassment and demanded a fresh inquiry into it.

A bench led by Justice JS Khehar in August had stayed the ongoing in-house inquiry by the panel and sought the response from high court, its judge and also Supreme Court.

In her petition, she has asked the Chief Justice of India to constitute a new committee comprising two Chief Justices from outside the MP high court, a High Court judge and a non-judicial member.

She urged the Chief Justice of India to comply with the house procedure adopted by a full court meeting of the Supreme Court on December 15, 1999, as per the Visakha guidelines on combating sexual harassment in the workplace. She has also sought her re-instatement with consequential benefits.

Earlier on August 4, in a letter to the Chief Justice of India, she had detailed the way in which she was harassed by Justice Gangele, who was also the administrative in-charge of Gwalior. She had alleged that she was posted to a remote area Sidhi after declining his sexual advances. Protesting her transfer, she had resigned from service on July 15.