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Case
Shambhoo Singh Raghuvanshi v. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh
The apex court on February 16 opined that a senior judge sending flirtatious messages to a junior judge over WhatsApp is inappropriate and unacceptable. In the hearing, the bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde expressed his disinterest to quash the disciplinary proceedings against senior district judge Shambhoo Singh Raghuvanshi initiated by Madhya Pradesh High Court. The junior judicial officer had filed a sexual harassment complaint although she had withdrawn her complaint under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. Also known as POSH Act, it is a gender-specific act that was enacted by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare to provide absolute protection to women at the workplace.
Senior Lawyer Ravindra Shrivastava who was representing the Madhya Pradesh High Court read out the WhatsApp messages sent by the senior judge to his subordinate. He also stated that the proceedings by the High Court were independent of the victim's POSH Act complaint. Col R Balasubramanian, who was arguing in favor of the ex-senior judge said that the charges were leveled to hamper the process of promotion of the judge. The court replied that the phenomenon is ubiquitous and all kinds of allegations come during a promotion in post. However, it cannot be generalized. In this particular case, there was an allegation.
The case of sexual harassment had been filed against Raghuvanshi in 2018 and he had earlier approached the Supreme Court to quash the disciplinary proceedings by the High Court which was not entertained by the apex court and he was told to approach the High Court. The petitioner filed the plea in the Supreme Court again after the High Court had rejected it.
(Supreme Court document and High Court judgment attached below)
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