CJI RM Lodha promises justice to intern in sexual harassment case

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of its former judge and National Green Tribunal chairperson Swatanter Kumar on a plea by a law intern, who has levelled sexual harassment charges against him, seeking transfer of the hearing of defamation suit filed by him out of Delhi.

"It is an unequal fight. I am up against a very influential judge who has immense clout over the bench and bar of Delhi. I am hopelessly in a subordinate position," the intern said, arguing her case through lawyer Indira Jaising. The intern contended that she did not expect justice from the Delhi High Court which is at present hearing the defamation case filed by justice Kumar against her and three media houses.

The remarks prompted Chief Justice of India R.M. Lodha, who headed the Bench which heard her transfer petition, to retort: "It is not fair on your part to make such a comment. We judges are made of a different stuff though there may be some aberrations.

Otherwise, when a lawyer is standing before us, it does not make any difference who he or she is. We only hear the case. we want to ensure that justice is done. Our priority is that people should have confidence in the system." The Bench asked Kumar to file his response within four weeks, saying that the intern should feel that "Justice should not only be done but also seen to be done. But at the same time both parties shall not feel prejudiced".

Pointing to the January order of the High Court which ex-parte (without hearing her) "went into the merits of the case", held her prima-facie guilty of defamation and prohibited the media from publishing details of the case, the intern alleged "institutional bias" against her was "apparent".

Jaising argued that Justice Kumar functioned as a judge of that court for many years and the fact that he hired 24 lawyers "that is almost all of the senior lawyers in Supreme Court, some of whom are government's law officers now like Mukul Rohatgi, Maninder Singh, N.K. Kaul" showed Justice Kumar's influence.

She reminded the CJI that Justice Kumar still held an important post of NGT chairperson. Jaising said at the same time when the intern approached many senior lawyers for representing her, all of them refused saying "they knew Justice Kumar quite well". "During his judicial career, he (Kumar) has obviously developed good relations with his colleagues, particularly the lawyers and judges. The senior counsel representing him have all invariably appeared before him when he was either a High Court Judge or a Supreme Court Judge and in all probability and potentially even before him as chairperson of the Green Tribunal.

In the circumstances, the petitioner reasonably apprehends that there is likely to be an institutional bias operating in his favour," the intern's petition said. "It is submitted that Delhi is an inconvenient forum for the petitioner, as she has no access to lawyers to provide her with adequate legal representation. The petitioner is living and working in Bangalore and it would be not just inconvenient for her to attend the proceedings of the trial in Delhi, but also threatening and intimidating in which the respondent is represented by 24 lawyers including senior lawyers," the petition read.

Filing the defamation suit, Justice Kumar had sought an injunction against publication or broadcast of anything related to the sexual harassment allegations, saying that the same was causing him "irredeemable damage". Justice Manmohan Singh of the High Court had on January 16, 2014 restrained the media from printing, publishing or telecasting the law intern's complaint and directed the media to treat the complaint strictly as allegations only. The court, however, allowed reporting of "true facts" and details of the proceedings in the matter.

Ordering that all "offending and defamatory" information and photographs of Kumar that have already been published be withdrawn within the next 24 hours, Justice Singh - in the interim order - also asked the media not to use his picture in any future news reports