NEW DELHI: A Supreme Court panel on Monday dismissed a sexual harassment complaint made against the country’s top judge by a former staff member, saying it lacked substance.
A 35-year-old junior court assistant had last month accused Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of making sexual advances toward her on two occasions at his official residence.
The woman claimed she lost her job and her family were harassed after she rebuffed Gogoi’s advances.
After the 64-year-old denied the allegations, a three-judge panel was set up to look into the woman’s complaint.
“The in-house committee has found no substance in the allegations contained in the complaint dated April 19, 2019 of a former employee of the Supreme Court of India,” the secretary general of the Supreme Court said in a statement.
It also said the panel’s report had been submitted to a senior judge as well as to the chief justice.
The contents of the report will not be made public in line with rules governing in-house inquiries, it added.
Last week, the woman said she was withdrawing from the inquiry as she was “not likely to get justice from this committee.”
In a letter, she said she found the “atmosphere of the committee very frightening” and that she felt “very nervous” as she was not allowed to be accompanied by her lawyer.
Gogoi, who is due to retire in November after a year in the job, has called the allegations “unbelievable” and an attempt to malign his reputation.
The case comes after a string of sexual harassment allegations were publicly made against Bollywood directors, actors and media figures last year, as the #metoo movement swept the country.
A junior foreign minister was forced to resign after several women accused him of harassment.
The Supreme Court, one of India’s most respected institutions, has 25 judges appointed by the president, including the chief justice.
Sexual harassment case against India top judge dismissed
Sexual harassment case against India top judge dismissed
- Last week, the woman said she was withdrawing from the inquiry as she was “not likely to get justice from this committee”
Attacks on Sudan health care facilities killed 69 this year: WHO
- “Five attacks on health care have already been recorded in Sudan, killing 69 people and injuring 49,” WHO chief wrote on X
- The WHO has confirmed at least 206 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the war
CAIRO: Five attacks on health care facilities have killed dozens of people in Sudan since the beginning of the year, the WHO said Saturday, as the war nears the start of its fourth year.
The fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has dismantled an already fragile medical system, with more than a third of facilities currently out of service.
“During the first 50 days of 2026, five attacks on health care have already been recorded in Sudan, killing 69 people and injuring 49,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
On Sunday a hospital was targeted in the southeastern state of Sennar, leaving three patients dead and seven people wounded, including an employee, Tedros said.
In three other attacks early this month, more than 30 people were killed when medical centers were targeted in South Kordofan, a vast region south of the capital Khartoum that is currently a focus of the fighting.
The WHO has confirmed at least 206 attacks on health care facilities since the start of the war in April 2023, resulting in the deaths of around 2,000 people and injuries to several hundred.
Last year alone, 65 attacks killed more than 1,620 people, accounting for 80 percent of all deaths worldwide linked to attacks on the medical sector, according to the WHO.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering what the UN says is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
According to the WHO, the country is facing multiple disease outbreaks, notably cholera, malaria, dengue and measles, in addition to malnutrition.
Some 4.2 million cases of acute malnutrition are expected to arise in Sudan this year, including more than 800,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, the WHO chief said earlier this month.
Around 33 million people will be left without humanitarian aid in 2026, with the United Nations warning in January that its aid stocks could run out by the end of March.
