Sign In
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
By signing in or creating an account, you agree with Associated Broadcasting Company's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
New Delhi: Civil Judge Aditi Kumar Sharma has stepped down from judicial service. She has alleged institutional apathy and failure to act on her harassment complaint against a senior judge who was recently elevated to the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Sharma, who served in Shahdol, submitted her resignation letter on July 28. She has cited disillusionment with the judicial system as a reason for stepping down. "I am resigning from judicial service, not because I failed the institution but because the institution failed me," she wrote in a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Sharma identified herself as "a judge who dared to speak up against a senior judge holding unaccountable power" over several years, but no action was taken against the accused senior judge. Instead, he was "rewarded, recommended, and elevated," she wrote. “No inquiry. No notice. No hearing. No accountability — (he) is now titled justice, a cruel joke upon the very word.”
She also emphasised that her fight was not rooted in personal vengeance but in a plea for justice. "I was crying for justice-not just for myself, but for the institution I cherished," she said. Her letter concluded by saying, "I leave this institution with no medals, no celebration, and no bitterness, only the bitter truth that the judiciary failed me. But worse, it failed itself."
Aditi Kumar Sharma also said that she is signing off, "not as an officer of the court, but as a victim of its silence."
In 2023, Sharma was among six women judicial officers whose services were terminated for alleged poor performance. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the terminations. On August 1, 2024 the Madhya Pradesh High Court reconsidered its earlier decision and excluded her name from the order which reinstated four of the six officers. Sharma and another officer, Sarita Chaudhary was excluded from the relief.
In a February 28 ruling, the Court called Sharma's dismissal as "arbitrary and illegal." Despite the apex court's ruling in her favour, Sharma has chosen to step down from the service.
