Supreme Court
A woman staff member of the West Bengal Raj Bhawan, who had alleged sexual harassment by Governor CV Ananda Bose, has moved the Supreme Court against immunity conferred by Governor under Article 361 of the Constitution.
The petitioner employee has called upon the top court to decide whether sexual harassment and molestation form part of discharging or performing duties by the Governor, so as to grant him a blanket immunity under Article 361 of the Constitution.
“This court has to decide whether a victim like the Petitioner can be rendered remediless, with the only option being to wait for the accused to demit his office, which delay will then be inexplainable during the trial, and render the entire procedure a mere lip service, without any justice to the victim herein,” the plea said.
The plea has also sought a thorough investigation into the case by West Bengal police and also prayed for guidelines to be framed with respect to the immunity enjoyed by Governor under Article 361 of the Constitution.
As per the petitioner, a civil suit against the Governor of a State can be instituted after serving a notice of two months in writing to the Governor, but no such timeline is prescribed for criminal proceedings, which again renders the petitioner remediless.
The object of Article 361 cannot be to impair the power of the police in such situations, she contended.
“Such powers cannot be understood to be absolute so as to enable the Hon’ble Governor to do acts which are illegal or which strike at the root of Part III of the Constitution. Moreover, the said immunity cannot impair the police’s powers to investigate the offence or even naming the perpetrator in the complaint/FIR, despite specific averments to that effect,” the petitioner submitted.
As per the victim’s complaint, the Governor had called her on April 24 and May 2 on the false pretext of offering a better job only to sexually harass within the premises of Raj Bhavan during working hours.
The Governor who under the garb of discharging his official duties, conducts himself in such a deplorable matter, is today given the voice by the media to give statements in the press brushing the allegations under the carpet and by terming them “engineered narrative” while the petitioner is rendered voiceless and shunned to a life of depravity and ridicule, the plea has said.
The petitioner has prayed that she be given protection by the State and be compensated as well for the trauma suffered by her.
The Calcutta High Court had in May stayed the proceedings in a First Information Report (FIR) lodged against the Officer on Special Duty (OSD-II) to the Governor after he was booked for allegedly restraining the victim and pressurising her to refrain from lodging any complaint of sexual harassment against the Governor.
