New inquiry officer to probe into allegations against Ashram

The Madras High Court today appointed Justice (Retd) T L Viswanatha Iyer as inquiry officer to go into sexual and other allegations against Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry, since former Justice P R Raman, who was entrusted with the job earlier, expressed his difficulty to continue.
Justice K K Sasidharan had on August 30 appointed Justice (Retd) Raman, a former judge of the Kerala High Court, as the inquiry officer.
Justice (Retd) Raman had already conducted preliminary inquiry on September 27 and the next probe is scheduled to be conducted from October 23.
In the meantime, he received a representation signed by 165 people from Odisha, who stated that they are devotees of the Ashram and have "some information" regarding the issues under consideration.

The original understanding was that the inquiry would be confined to the complaints received from the inmates of the Ashram and the local MLA, and as such, it would take less than three months.
In view of the subsequent development, Justice (Retd) Raman was of the view that it would take minimum six months to complete the process and expressed his difficulties to continue as he has to come from Kerala frequently.

Considering the difficulties expressed by Justice (Retd) Raman, the high court today appointed Justice (Retd) Iyer, also a former Judge of Kerala High Court, as new inquriy officer.

Justice Sasidharan said the inquiry would be with reference to specific complaints by inmates of the Ashram and it could not be converted as a referendum and requested Justice (Retd) Iyer to give a report to the court preferably by December 31.
He then posted the matter to January 2 next year.