Swatanter Kumar recuses self from cases involving firm engaged by him

NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment from a former law intern, has issued an administrative order recusing himself from any case filed by Karanjawala and Co., the firm which is handling his court cases.

Although the order is dated January 10, 2014, the day the allegations against the former Supreme Court judge surfaced in the media, it was uploaded today on the website of National Green Tribunal (NGT).

"As directed by the chairperson, all cases/matters pertaining to M/s Karanjawala and Co. or involving RN Karanjawala will be listed only before Bench 2 at Faridkot House," the administrative order says.

Justice Kumar heads Bench 1 of NGT.

The law firm of Karanjawala and Co. is handling the matter in Supreme Court involving the allegations made by the former law intern against Justice Kumar.

The complainant has filed a petition seeking the setting up of a mechanism within the judiciary to deal with cases of sexual harassment at the workplace.

The apex court has issued a notice to Justice Kumar in the matter.

Justice Kumar has also engaged Karanjawala to slap a defamation suit against the complainant and a newspaper and two news channels for publishing her allegations.

Justice Kumar has also recused himself from hearing cases/ matters pertaining to DLF and/or BPTP.

NGT sources said he had recused himself from hearing matters pertaining to DLF/BPTP in order to avoid a conflict of interest as he used to be on the panel of lawyers for those entities.

The above administrative orders along with several other older ones were being put up on the NGT website at one go as they had been pending upload for some time, the sources said.