Cabinet clears decks to sack disgraced Ganguly

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal for sending a Presidential reference to the Supreme Court for conducting a probe into the allegation of sexual harassment against retired Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly.

The proposal will now be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee, who will then send the matter to the Chief Justice of India, seeking a probe into the issue based on the three points raised in the reference.

Union finance minister P. Chidambaram and information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said, “The Union Cabinet has given its nod to the Union home ministry’s proposal for sending a Presidential reference to the Chief Justice of India.”

The decision came after the Union home ministry placed the views of attorney-general G.E. Vahanvati, who has noted that a case can be made out against Justice Ganguly following allegations of “untowards behaviour” towards a woman law intern, sources said.

The attorney-general’s suggestions came after his views were invited on a letter to the President by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee seeking Justice Ganguly’s removal as chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission following the intern’s allegation of sexual harassment.

The attorney-general had been asked to give views on whether any case can be made out on three issues — allegation of sexual harassment against Justice Ganguly, his visit to Pakistan without informing the West Bengal government and taking an assignment of arbitration from the All-India Football Federation despite holding the high post of the human rights body.

The Protection of Human Rights Act clearly states that chairperson or member of NHRC or a state human rights commission can only be removed “by order of the President of India on the grounds of proven misbehaviour or incapacity after the Supreme Court, on reference being made to it by the President, has, on enquiry reported that the chairperson or the member, as the case may be, ought on any such ground to be removed.”