Law intern issue: Committee intends to complete probe at earliest

New Delhi: The three-judge committee, set up to probe the allegations of sexual harassment of a law intern by a recently-retired Supreme Court judge, on Tuesday said that it is focusing on the matter "with all seriousness" and intends to complete the inquiry at the earliest.

The committee comprising justices R M Lodha, H L Dattu and Ranjana Prakash Desai today held a meeting at 1.30 PM in the apex court, an official said. "The committee is focusing with all seriousness on the task given to it by the Chief Justice of India and intends to complete the inquiry at the earliest," he said. However, there was no word from the official on when the committee will have its next sitting and who are the persons likely to be examined by it. The official said that "recording of statement of the concerned intern has been concluded." The law intern, in an interview to The Wall Street Journal, had said she feels "humiliated" and has to constantly justify that she is not lying as the legal system is not equipped to sensitively deal with crimes against women. She had also said that she feels that she is being looked at with "suspicious eyes" when she appears before the apex court`s three-member probe panel. She had also said the reason for delay in coming out with the sexual harassment allegation was that it took her time to "come to terms with the fact that I had been assaulted". The intern had accused the sitting judge, who retired recently, of having misbehaved with her in a hotel room last December when the nation was grappling with the gangrape of a 23-year-old woman in the capital. Taking note of her allegation, CJI P Sathasivam had appointed a three-member panel to look into it. On November 21, the intern had sent certain applications and affidavits to the panel.