JOIN USA K Ganguly, the former Supreme Court judge who is facing allegations of sexually harassing a former intern, resigned from his position as a visiting faculty member of the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) on Thursday.
Ganguly was teaching a course on constitutional litigation at the NUJS this past semester, according to persons in the university’s administration. Previously he visited the campus to deliver guest lectures, but since the start of the 2013-14 academic year, he was offered a full course, they said.
Ganguly’s move came amidst speculation of his stepping down as chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), a statutory body to which he was appointed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
In a letter to NUJS on Thursday, Justice Ganguly expressed his decision to “voluntarily opt out” of the guest faculty position.
“I don’t want to continue as a member of the guest facility and be a burden on NUJS,” he wrote. His move comes after the Union Cabinet approved a Presidential reference seeking his removal from WBHRC.
In November, a Supreme Court-appointed panel found prima facie evidence of Ganguly having sexually harassed a student of the same law school in December 2012, when she was working as his intern.