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Over 250 women – lawyers, scholars, women's group – have sought a fair and impartial enquiry into the sexual harassment allegations against the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Rajan Gogoi on Wednesday, 24 April.
In a letter to Supreme Court judges, accessed by The Quint, the women demanded:
An ex-SC staffer, on 19 April, alleged that the CJI has sexually harassed her while she was employed as a junior court assistant in the apex court in October last year.
In the letter, the women said, "While the allegations listed in the affidavit are shocking, equally worrisome was the response of the Chief Justice: apart from denying the charges, he constituted a Special Bench along with two other Judges at 10.30 am to hear a matter of “great public importance touching upon the independence of judiciary.”
They said that the CJI as well as the Special Bench have "responded as most men, in public office or in positions of authority and power do, when accused of sexual misconduct."
"Denial of the allegations, maligning the complainant, citing past histories, imputing ulterior motives to the complainant are familiar and regular devices deployed by accused men," the letter read.
They said the measures that they have demanded from the judges will uphold the "dignity and independence of the Judiciary and and more particularly, “restore the faith of all women in the Judiciary".
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