Sudha Ramalingam Advocate Press Statement

Sudha Ramalingam
Advocate

Press Statement
Two lawyers respond to Justice Karnan’s video
It is unfortunate that a video featuring former Judge Mr. C.S. Karnan is being circulated where he makes insinuations about judges, past and present, in the Supreme Court and Madras High Court, connecting many of them with named women sub-ordinate officials who worked with them while in service. In the said video, he admits to have made threats that he would sexually assault spouses of the above mentioned judges. He has made slanderous, vulgar, derogatory, disparaging statements using abusive, insulting words. His statements are offensive and derogatory towards women. This act of the former judge of the High Court is highly condemnable and to allow this kind of mischievousness and perversity is against our human ethos that we as citizens wish to always uphold irrespective of the gender, religion and caste that we may have been born into.
The fact that the former judge has chosen to demean women from different backgrounds who happen either to have served in the judiciary as staff or as judges or members of serving and former judges’ family speaks extremely lowly of a person who had been chosen by the same members of the judiciary to serve as a judge and as their colleague. The former judge has forgotten that it is in poor form, and also against the law, to name or identify victims of sexual assault. By naming women who were allegedly assaulted by judges, he has caused serious harm to them. We are governed by the rule of law, and judges are no exception. If Mr. Karnan had genuine allegations against other judges and reason to believe that they had committed sexual assault, he could have used other avenues that are available in law. When a person, a former judge no less, makes public statement which is disparaging towards women, openly threatening women judge and female relatives of judges with sexual violence, and naming women employees of the judiciary as victims of sexual violence, such act needs to be condemned.
We therefore call upon the State and National Commission for Women to suo moto take up this matter with the urgency and seriousness that it requires and ensure that this act of the former judge does not go unpunished and serves as a deterrent to any others who wish to stoop to these levels. It is also time for all women rights and feminist organizations across the country to raise together their collective condemnation against this act of the former Judge. We affirm our commitment and solidarity with Dalit and Adivasi rights and the movements; but we cannot allow impunity to a person who invokes the name of Dr. Ambedkar and makes open threats to commit sexual violence against women.
We both as practicing advocates and members in different public platforms and civil society organizations connected with women, Dalits and Adivasis, therefore deemed it our duty to speak out urgently on the matter.
(Sudha Ramalingam) (Henri Tiphagne)