MP woman judicial officer resigns over elevation of district judge to High Court

A woman judicial officer from Madhya Pradesh has tendered her resignation in protest against the elevation of a district judge to the High Court against whom she had levelled serious allegations of harassment.

The top court on February 28 had set aside the orders terminating the services of two women judicial officers, including the judge who resigned on Monday, in Madhya Pradesh in May 2023, terming the action “punitive, arbitrary”.

The judicial officer submitted her resignation to the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday.

In her strongly worded letter, she expressed a sense of profound betrayal, not from criminals or wrongdoers, but from the very judicial system she had sworn to uphold.

“The man I accused, not anonymously but with documented facts and the raw courage only a wounded woman can summon, was not even asked to explain. No inquiry. No notice. No hearing. No accountability. He is now titled as justice, a cruel joke upon the very word,” the judicial officer said in her resignation.

The letter states that the judicial officer leaves the institution with “no medals” but a “bitter truth” that the judiciary not only failed her but failed itself.

The judicial officer’s allegations trace back to a protracted battle she waged against the senior trial court judge, during which she claims to have been subjected to “unrelenting harassment” for speaking out.