Ashok Kumar Ganguly

Asok Kumar Ganguly is an Indian jurist. He served as the chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission and as a judge of the Supreme Court of India who delivered judgements in some high-profile cases like the 2G spectrum case.

Early life and education Ganguly was born on 3 February 1947. He graduated with a Master of Arts in English from the University of Calcutta in 1968 and received a Bachelor of Laws from the same university in 1970.

Notable judgements 2G spectrum case – On 2 February 2012 the bench of Justice AK Ganguly & Justice GS Singhvi quashed 122 2G licenses issued in the year 2008 by A. Raja, then "Union Telecom Minister". It was alleged that then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's personal secretary Amba Das had called up the then district superintendent of police (SP) to inform that the chief minister did not want any FIR to be registered in the case. Accordingly, the SP asked his subordinates not to register any FIR but reportedly recorded the same in its file. Aggrieved by the refusal of the police to register an FIR, the victims approached the Bombay High Court which, apart from ordering registration of an FIR, also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the state. But the state govt challenged Bombay High Court's verdict in Supreme Court of India. In a judgement on 6 July 2011, the bench of Justice Ganguly along with Justice GS Singhvi ordered that entire 156 hectares of land be given back to the robbed farmers. The government had acquired the land for "development" but was handed over to builders for making commercial and residential complexes. The bench imposed a fine of Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) for its illegal act.

Controversies

Allegations of sexual misconduct A woman intern had alleged a recently retired Supreme Court judge had sexually assaulted and sexually harassed her. The Supreme Court, then appointed a three-member committee to probe the allegations and identified A K Ganguly was the one who harassed her. He repeatedly denied all charges. He was indicted on 6 December 2013 by the committee, which agreed with the intern's allegation that he had subjected her to "unwelcome sexual behaviour" in December 2012. He resigned from the West Bengal Human Rights Commission on 6 January 2014 after the Union Cabinet decided to make a Presidential Reference on 2 January 2014 to the Supreme Court for his removal.

He was acquitted of all charges after the intern refused to record her statement before the police.