Intern's affidavit was made public with her consent: Jaising

A senior woman law officer, instrumental in making public the affidavit of the law intern against retired Supreme Court judge, Justice A K Ganguly, today claimed it was done with the "consent" of the victim.

"Yes, it was with the consent of the intern and what has been published in the media through her is the verbatim of the affidavit filed by her before the three-judge committee of the apex court," Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising said.

She was responding to the allegation by Justice Ganguly that there was a palpable design to malign him at the instance of interested quarters.

The ASG, however, refused to be drawn into the allegations made by the former judge in his letter to the Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam saying it was for the CJI to look into.

"It is not for me to comment as the letter is addressed to the CJI," the ASG said, adding she was also not aware of the content of the letter.

"I have not seen the full content of the letter, so it would be pre-mature for me to comment. However, I have noticed that he was wondering how I was authorised to release that letter.

"I can only tell you that I have authorisation from the intern concerned who did it only after she noticed that very powerful interest in society were coming out in his support and she felt voiceless and powerless. That was the reason she authorised me. Rest is with the CJI," she said.

Justice Ganguly in his letter has alleged that there is a concerted move to tarnish his image because of certain judgements he had delivered and questioned the necessity of the constitution of a Supreme Court committee to probe the accusation against him.

"There is a concerted move to tarnish my image as I had the unfortunate duty of rendering certain judgements against powerful interests," he has said in an eight-page letter to the CJI, which was also being forwarded to President Pranab Mukherjee.