months imprisonment and fine of Rs. 1000 for

molesting a teen……..who was driven to commit

suicide 

S S Rathore, (who retired as Director General of Police, Haryana) then a senior police officer and President of the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association molested Ruchika Girhotra, a 14-year-old tennis player in August 1990. She committed suicide in 1993.The following is the sequence of events:

AUG 11, 1990
S S Rathore, then Deputy Inspector General of Police, Haryana and President of the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association visits Ruchika Girhotra’s house at noon.
He persuades her father, S C Girhotra, a bank manager, not to send Ruchika to Canada.
Promises special training for the teenager.
Asks her father to tell Ruchika to visit his office-cum residence the next day.

AUG 12, 1990
Ruchika and her friend Aradhana visit Rathore’s office-cum-residence in Panchkula (10 km from Chandigarh).
Rathore asks Aradhana to fetch the coach.
Aradhana returns to find Rathore molesting Ruchika.
On seeing her, Rathore lets go Ruchika, who rushes out of the room.
Rathore asks Aradhana to talk to Ruchika and that “he would do whatever she would say”.
Considering Rathore’s powerful position, the two teen age girls decide not to talk about the incident to their parents,

AUG 14, 1990
Ruchika and Aradhana go to the tennis court.
Rathore calls Ruchika again to his office.
This time, the girls decide to share it with the parents.
Ruchika confides in Aradhana’s mother, Madhu Parkash.

AUG 15, 1990
Both families, along with parents of other trainees of the Haryana Lawn Tennis Association hand over a written complaint to Home Secretary J S Duggal.
The Chief Minister marks it to then DGP R R Singh.

AUG 26, 1990
The DGP summons Rathore.
In retaliation, Rathore arranges 45-50 hoodlums who raise slogans against Ruchika and smash the window panes of her house.

SEPT 3, 1990
DGP’s report finds the allegations true, recommends registration of case and investigation by CID.

MARCH 11, 1991
Change of government brings in a new DGP, RK Hooda,
He too recommends departmental action against Rathore.1992
Government agrees that an FIR can be registered against Rathore.
The case is transferred to the Chief Secretary.

AUG 12, 1992
First of the six auto theft FIRs is registered against Ruchika’s brother, Ashu.

OCT 23, 1993
 Ruchika’s brother, Ashu is arrested, kept in custody for two months.
He is beaten up in custody and one day taken to his house, where Ruchika is told that her father would meet the same fate if she did not withdraw the complaint.

DEC 28, 1993
Ruchika consumes poison, dies next day.
Her brother Ashu is released.JAN 1994
Government withdraws all charges against Rathore.

APRIL 1997
Ruchika’s brother Ashu is discharged from all theft cases.

NOV 1997
Aradhana’s mother files a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
A year later, the High Court directs CBI to conduct an inquiry.DEC 1999
The Supreme Court upholds the order of High Court.

JAN 2000
 The CBI files charge sheet against Rathore, recommends his removal in the interest of “free and fair deposition”.

JULY 2002
Rathore retires as DGP.

NOV 2009
The Case is transferred to CBI Chandigarh.

DEC 11, 2009
On Monday, 21^st December 2009 the special CBI court in Chandigarh sentences , S.P.S. Rathore to six months imprisonment and fine of Rs. 1,000.

The family was harassed so much that after Ruchika’s deatgm it shifted from Panchkula to an undisclosed location.

Authors note 

Ø  What is surprising is that not only successive governments did not take any action against Rathore, but promoted him.

Ø  During the pendency of the case, Rathore was promoted by successive governments in Haryana, till he became DGP and retired in 2002 as the Director General of Police.

Ø  He was also awarded the Police Medal in 1985.

Ø  According to Lawyer Pankaj Bhardwaj, who has been fighting the case free of cost for the last 13 years. “Rathore’s atrocities over Ruchika’s family forced the innocent girl to commit suicide”.

Ø  Only now the Home ministry has issued show cause notices on S.P.S. Rathore, in an attempt to strip off the medal and also for reduction of his pension owing to the gruesome crime he committed. 

Chief Justice of India

I hate people who are now saying that they tried to help in the case, but at that time remained silent spectators.They could then have leaked the information to the media and appropriate action would have been taken.

Does not this case call for suo moto action ?

This is my humble request to you.. 

Dr. Binoy Gupta
Retd. Chief Commissioner of Income Tax

But they are faced with acute shortage in numbers, truck loads of pending cases, ever increasing burden of more and more cases, archaic and time consuming law and procedures, etc.

To give an idea:·                    The Supreme Court has 31 judges with a pendency of 46,926 cases (January 2009). The number has since crossed 50,000.·                    The 21 High Courts, have 635 judges against the sanctioned strength of 886.
They have pendency of 38.7 lakh cases (January 1, 2009 – 37.4 lakh cases on January 1, 2008).
Our judges are working against such odds.

Once in a while, a charge is made, an allegation levelled against a judge.
A charge was made against Justice Soumitra Sen of the Kolkata High Court.
He was alleged to have appropriated Rs 32 lakh as a court-appointed receiver in 1993 in a lawsuit between SAIL and Shipping Corporation of India over supply of fire bricks by depositing the money in his personal account, in spite of knowing that the money had to be kept in a separate bank account.

Justice Sen retained the money even after being elevated to the High Court in 2003, and returned it only after the High Court ordered him to pay it back in April 2006.

The allegations were referred to a three judge inquiry committee. The committee found Justice Sen’s conduct a serious misconduct.
Justice K G Balakrishnan, the Chief Justice of India requested the Prime Minister to initiate impeachment proceedings.
In September 2008, the Govt. decided to initiate impeachment proceedings.

The impeachment proceedings have commenced and would be taken to their logical conclusion.
On his part, Justice Sen has chosen to defend himself.

This is in bad taste. Once a serious allegation has been levelled against a judge, and his peers found truth in the allegations, the least the judge should do is resign.

The entire judicial system is based on faith and respect. If that has gone, what is left?

Instead of sticking on to his post, it would have been a far more graceful gesture for Justice Sen to quit.Judges have quit in the past. There is nothing wrong in quitting. That would have been the best action.

The first impeachment process in India was initiated against a Supreme Court Judge V Ramaswami in 1991 for misconduct in furniture purchases when he was the Chief Justice of Haryana HC.
But he was not formally impeached.