Presidential reference on Ganguly's removal cleared

Ganguly says he needs some time to decide on the next course of action

The Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal  to send a presidential reference to the Supreme Court to conduct a probe into the allegation of sexual harassment against retired apex court judge A K Ganguly.

The proposal would be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee, who would forward it to the chief justice for a probe, based on the three points raised in the reference: Allegation of sexual harassment against Ganguly, his visit to Pakistan without informing the West Bengal government and taking an arbitration assignment from the All-India Football Federation despite holding the top post at the human rights body.

Ganguly said he needed some time to decide on the next course of action. “I don’t want to comment now. Please give me some time. Later on, I will let you know,” Ganguly was quoted as saying by PTI.

In another decision, the Cabinet asked a committee of secretaries to formulate an action-taken report on the high-powered Justice M B Shah Commission report on illegal mining in Odisha. The report, which runs into five voluminous parts, was on Thursday brought before the Cabinet. The action-taken report and the Shah panel report would be tabled in Parliament, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said here.

In the Ganguly issue, the home ministry placed before the Cabinet the views of Attorney-General G E Vahanvati, who had noted that a case can be made out against Ganguly, following the allegation of “unwelcome behaviour” towards a woman law intern, officials said. The attorney-general had sent his suggestions after these were sought by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had written to the President seeking Ganguly’s removal as chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission. Officials said the attorney-general was asked to state if any case can be made out on the three issues.

The Protection of Human Rights Act states a 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”.

The Shah commission report, which the Cabinet referred to a secretaries’ panel, had severely indicted the Centre and the Odisha government for the illegal mining of iron and manganese ores and asked the state to recover over Rs 59,203 crore from the miners. It had also recommended granting all mining leases via the auction route.