Constitutional immunity to Governor: Supreme Court seeks Attorney General's assistance in plea accusing WB Guv of sexual harassment
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday sought the assistance of Attorney General R Venkatramani to examine a plea by a contractual woman employee of West Bengal Raj Bhawan. Her plea questioned the validity of the legal provision granting blanket immunity to the Governor as she has accused the Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose, the constitutional head in the state, of sexual harrassment.
A bench of Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued a notice to the West Bengal government and allowed the woman petitioner to implead the Union government as a party in her plea.
Senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for the petitioner, contended that Article 361 of the Constitution should not be a bar against an investigation against the Governor.
"Evidence has to be gathered right now. It cannot be deferred indefinitely," he submitted.
In her plea, the woman sought a direction to the West Bengal police to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment made against against Governor Bose.
She also asked the court to frame guidelines and fix qualification to the extent of the immunity enjoyed by the constitutional figure under Article 361 of the Constitution.
She claimed she has been rendered "remediless" due to the constitutional immunity granted to the Governor.
Article 361 (2) of the Constitution stated no criminal proceedings can be instituted or continued against the President, or the Governor of a state, in any court during their term of office. The article is an exception to Article 14 (right to equality) of the Constitution and provides that the president or the governor is not answerable to any court for the exercise of the powers and duties of his office.
Referring to the provision, her plea contended that such powers cannot be understood to be absolute so as to enable the Governor to do acts which are illegal or which strike at the root of Part III of the Constitution.
It said the immunity cannot impair the police’s powers to investigate the offence or even naming the perpetrator in the complaint/FIR, despite specific averments to that effect.
The petitioner contended no person is above the law and under the garb of the constitutional immunity, the Governor is by no means permitted to act inappropriately and inflict gender violence when every other citizen of the country is prohibited to do the same.
On May 2, the petitioner had filed a complaint with the Officer-in-Charge, Raj Bhavan, Kolkata, on the basis of the instances, accusing the Governor of sexually harassing her on the pretext of offering her a better job.
Her plea also cited press report of May 15, 2024, that an Odissi dancer from Bengal had also filed a complaint in October 2023 accusing the Governor of sexually abusing her in a Hotel in New Delhi in January 2023, according to an inquiry report submitted by Kolkata Police to the state government in May 2024.