Ganguly`s resignation hurts Somnath Chatterjee, TMC welcomes

Kolkata: Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Tuesday said that Justice AK Ganguly, accused of sexually harassing a law intern, had to resign as chief of the WBHRC `without proof or investigation`.

 "He had to resign without any proof or investigation in the case," Chatterjee said, adding that he was hurt by the developments leading to Justice Ganguly stepping down from the post of chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission.  Chatterjee said "In our legal system till the time a person is proved to be guilty he is held innocent, but in this case he was not given proper hearing. Stating that the rulebook was not followed in the case, he said "The Supreme Court`s investigation was unconstitutional and they have themselves admitted that they had no authority to do anything."  "He was a Supreme Court judge and no one had doubt on him," Chatterjee said.  The ruling Trinamool Congress, however, welcomed, the former judge`s resignation. Trinamool Congress MP and lawyer Kalyan Banerjee said by resigning Justice Ganguly had saved his prestige from being damaged further.  "We are happy with the decision. He should have done this earlier, but nevertheless we welcome it as he had no moral right to continue in the post after the allegations," the MP said.  Eminent lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, however, described the resignation as unfortunate saying the core issue of sexual harassment was sidelined.  "He was under tremendous pressure to resign and now the focus has shifted away from the incident. Whatever is the truth should be investigated," he said.