Supreme Court seeks reply from Secretary General, Law intern accused judge of harassment

The Supreme Court has sought a response from the Secretary-General on framing a mechanism to deal with cases of sexual harassment against sitting and retired judges. A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice AS Oka and Justice Vikram Nath hearing the matter has given 4 weeks to the Secretary-General. The bench is hearing a petition filed by a law intern in 2014, alleging sexual harassment by a retired Supreme Court judge.
Senior lawyer Indira Jaising, appearing for the petitioner in the court, has demanded the filing of some additional material with the passage of time. He also sought the stand on the record of the Secretary-General with regard to the practices. The court gave the petitioner 4 weeks to put it on record. At the same time, the Secretary-General has been given 4 weeks to keep the stand on record. Now the court will next hear the matter on November 15.
In January 2014, the Delhi High Court barred the media from publishing any material exposing the allegations levelled by the victim. The judge dismissed the claims as "baseless, fraudulent and motivated".
The victim then approached the Supreme Court in January 2014. The court, while allowing the petition, said that today there is no mechanism to investigate complaints of sexual harassment against judicial officers, for this it is necessary to have a mechanism.