Concerted move to tarnish my image: Justice Ganguly

Alleging that there was a concerted move to tarnish his image because of certain judgements he delivered, Justice A K Ganguly, accused of sexually harassing a law intern, today questioned the necessity of the constitution of a Supreme Court committee.

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

He said, "I see in the whole game a palpable design to malign me at the instance of interested quarters."

Raising questions about the three-judge committee of the Supreme Court constituted to probe the allegations, Ganguly argued that since the girl intern was not on the rolls of the Supreme Court and he was a retired judge, it was "not required to be constituted".

He said "I am anguished that the Supreme Court under your Lordship did not address me correctly."

Ganguly said a newspaper report dated December 12 "without any verification" also could not have been the basis of a petition by the Attorney General on which the Chief Justice was reported to have acted.

"Thus the stated reason that the committee was set up to find out whether the judge was a sitting judge cannot be accepted because the blog expressly disclosed retired judge," he said raising 36 points in his letter.

"First of all, I wish to make it clear that I never harassed nor did I make any unwelcome advances to any female intern. The very suggestion of it, to say the least, is out of tune with my personal conduct," said Ganguly, also the chairman of West Bengal Human Rights Commission.