L'Affaire Ganguly
After being heckled for weeks for refusing to step down from his position as chairman of the Human Rights Commission in Bengal, former Supreme Court judge Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly, who was accused by a law intern of sexual harassment late last year, finally stepped down this week. Attributing the decision to what he called the Bengal state government's "hostile" attitude towards him, the disgraced former justice told Outlook that he stood by his previous denial of the charges that have been made against him. "I am shocked and shattered by the allegations," he reiterated. Justice Ganguly's name was made public after the intern, a student Calcutta-based law college NUJS, blogged that she was molested in a hotel room in Delhi on the night of December 24, 2012, when she met the judge for what she claimed was a professional assignment. Since then there have been demands for his resignation, from women's groups, the general public and members of the Bengal ruling party, Trinamool Congress. "He has no right to continue as head of a human rights body after being accused of such a serious crime," TMC Member of Parliament and lawyer Kalyan Bandyopadyay had told Outlook before Justice Ganguly resigned. However, the Opposition parties, namely the Communist Party of India (Marxists) pointed out that the demand for his resignation by the TMC smacked of vendetta as Ganguly as chairman of the WBHRC had reprimanded the state government on several counts for alleged human rights violations and made several recommendations asking it to compensate and even tender apologies to the victims of these rights violations. Left leaders were careful not to dismiss the allegations made by the woman but nevertheless were not willing to rule out the possibility that "Justice Ganguly was being targeted," as CPI-M's Mohammade Selim said. But the controversial storm that raged around Justice Ganguly and his refusal to step down did not limit itself to politicians. Speaking to Outlook, senior lawyer Gitanath Ganguly said, "The whole issue has divided the legal fraternity with one section standing by him and the other distancing itself."