Yesterday I
heard the Ex Supreme Court judge Ganguli professing his innocence on a news
channel over allegation of sexual harassment of a law-interne.
I am deeply pained that a fair and impartial judge like Ganguli is embroiled in a controversy of such misdemeanor. I have seen him in Patna High Court as a judge also. While at the Supreme Court he gave verdicts on corruption and scams that damaged the credibility of the UPA Government to an irreparable limit.
The alacrity of the Attorney General Vahanvati in moving before an S.C. bench on this issue just when the blog of the girl-interne broke out does make me think whether Ganguli is “victim of circumstances” really. I have reasons to surmise because Vahanvati had eroded public trust in the backdrop of the CBI affidavit interpolations resulting in unceremonious exit of the then law minister Ashwini Kumar. The coalgate files went missing in a mysterious way. I wonder if this is a signal to judges taking ruthless judicial stance on corruption and mafia.
Nevertheless
I do not have any judgmental reaction on this abhorrent incident. But as an
ordinary citizen I do have anguish that a couple of Ex-S.C. entities have been
given chairmanships of two statutory bodies in recent years who had faced tangible charges of corruption
but the UPA government had given them a clean chit. Is it some sort of quid pro
quo? Can only the pliable survive in the system?
My point is that a person facing credible charges of misconduct must not either be appointed as a judge nor he should be elevated to the higher echelon.
Finally I
stress the point that a fair & comprehensive inquiry should be made to go
to the depth of the malaise and befittingly exemplary punishment must be handed
down irrespective of the stature of the culprit.
If judiciary is debilitated then democracy will have no relevance at all.
