Swatanter Kumar

JGLS Sonepat has hired 104 faculty members in its law school starting in January 2020 improving its student-faculty ratio from 12:1 to 9:1, hot on the heels of the the grant of Institution of Eminence (IoE) status to it in September.

The Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi has instituted a special bench this morning, at 10:30am in Court Number 1, headed by himself alongside justices Arun Mishra and Sanjeev Khanna, to vociferously refute sexual harassment allegations made against him by a complainant in a letter sent to all Supreme Court judges.

To borrow the words of one anonymous tipster, we’ve not been living under a rock for the past weeks.

With his Art of Living Foundation (AoL) yet to pay the major chunk of "environment compensation" for its cultural fest on the Yamuna floodplains, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was on Thursday slapped with a contempt suit for "alleged disrespect shown by him to the orders of National Green Tribunal (NGT)".

Pachauri’s gradual rehabilitation is not a new narrative: in fact, the rehabilitation of powerful men, whether in the eyes of the mainstream media, politics or the common man and woman, is par for the course, albeit a massively nuanced matter.

The Delhi high court has lifted its order restraining publication of reports on the alleged harassment complaint joint winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Rajendra K Pachauri.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) cannot take any action against retired Supreme Court (SC) justice and National Green Tribunal (NGT) head Swatanter Kumar in the sexual harassment complaint against him, as the charges are from when he was an SC judge, the MoEF told the SC, reported the Express.

The MoEF relied on the precedent set in the case of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson and former chief justice of India (CJI) KG Balakrishnan, and also sought deletion of its name as a party in the case of sexual harassment filed by Kumar’s former intern against him.

The Delhi high court adjourned its hearing in the Swatanter Kumar defamation case to 28 August, after the Supreme Court transfer petition was filed with the court in sealed cover.

The Delhi high court hearing former Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar's defamation case, would wait until the Supreme Court had decided on the transfer petition by an former law student intern who alleged she was sexually harassed by him.

A former intern, who had alleged that ex-Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar has sexually harassed her in 2011, has applied to the Supreme Court to transfer Kumar’s defamation case.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has published a call for interns. Law clerks should be graduates from a recognised university and will be paid Rs 25,000 per month, while law interns will be students pursuing a law degree who "would not be paid any remuneration and shall be exposed to the learning experience in the field of environment issues and shall be awarded Merit Certificate at the conclusion of the internship".

Law clerks or interns will have to work for at least six months to get issued the certificate, but their posting can be terminated at any time without notice or reason, according to the invitation. "Any ethical breach" by an intern or clerk would be "viewed seriously and will entitle [sic] the Law Clerk / Law Intern from receiving the certificate", with breaches, "if it becomes necessary", being "reposted to the Bar Council" if they are enrolled.

Clerks or interns will not be able to appear before the bench to whom they are attached for one year after concluding their tenure. The NGT has two currently active benches with former Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar as chairman. [Notification with job description]

Fali Nariman and PP Rao have completed their recommendations to the Supreme Court in what procedure to follow in case of sex harassment allegations against sitting and former judges.

NUJS Kolkata vice chancellor Ishwara Bhatt announced at the law school's convocation that its guidelines to protect of interns from sexual harassment would be published on its website soon, reported the Telegraph.

The report added that Bhatt promised that if an intern’s employer does not take action against a harasser on receiving a complaint of sexual harassment from the university, the university will “help the intern in a suitable way”.

The report stated that the policy follows sexual harassment allegations by former NUJS students against ex-Supreme Court Justice AK Ganguly, and "another Supreme Court judge", whose name the paper did not specify.

Newspapers reported in January that one of former Justice Swatanter Kumar's NUJS interns, while he was still a sitting judge, alleged that the judge sexually harassed her. Kumar has filed a defamation suit against several newspapers, which will next get heard on 19 May, obtaining a temporary and partial restriction on media reporting the allegations against him without also stating that they are mere allegations.

The next hearing will be on 19 May in the Delhi high court case filed by Swatanter Kumar against three media companies and an NUJS Kolkata graduate who alleged the former Supreme Court judge had sexually harrassed her while she interned with him, reported the PTI.

The Supreme Court has adjourned its hearing in the public interest litigation (PIL) against Swatanter Kumar until 26 March, as two more interveners attempted to join the PIL.

Legally India has obtained a copy of the public interest litigation filed by anonymous lawyer X, a former intern of ex-Supreme Court judge Swatanter Kumar, whose case will again get heard by the Supreme Court tomorrow (14 February).

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) asked solicitor general Mohan Parasaran if National Green Tribunal (NGT) chairperson Swatanter Kumar can face removal proceedings based on treating the SC sexual harassment petition against him as “written complaint”, reported the Indian Express.

An ex-intern of the former Supreme Court justice had filed a petition in the SC for action against Kumar, alleging that he had sexually harassed her during her internship with him. The NGT Act empowers the MoEF to remove Kumar from the post of chairperson if it is found that he has “abused his position so as to render his continuance in office prejudicial to public interest”.

However, the government can only initiate removal proceedings after receiving a written complaint against the chairperson. The SC has not yet given any opinion on the ex-intern’s allegations.

The chilling effect of the Delhi high court’s gag order it the Swatanter Kumar case is only the latest in a long line of examples of the media losing out in its fight to report on the judiciary, argues advocate Prashant Reddy.

For all intents and purposes, a lot of credit should go to Karanjawala & Co, for they have proven what difference a lawyer can make (or a team of six or more, judging by the number cc’d to my recent email correspondence with the firm).