A woman who had accused West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose of sexually harassing her has moved the Supreme Court challenging the immunity from criminal proceedings claimed by the governor under Article 361 of the Constitution, Live Law reported.

Article 361 states that the president or the governor is not answerable to any court “for the exercise of the powers and duties of his office”. Article 361 (2) and (3) state that criminal proceedings cannot be instituted or continued against the president or the governor in any court during his term of office.

The petitioner, a former ​​contractual employee at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata, has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether “sexual harassment and molestation form part of discharging or performing duties” by the governor to claim immunity, reported Bar and Bench.

Raj Bhavan is the official residence and office of the governor.

“This court has to decide whether a victim like the petitioner can be rendered remediless, with the only option being to wait for the accused to demit his office, which delay will then be inexplainable during the trial, and render the entire procedure a mere lip service, without any justice to the victim herein,” read the petition.

The petitioner is seeking a thorough investigation into the case by the West Bengal Police. She has also sought guidelines to be framed regarding the immunity enjoyed by governors under Article 361.

Additionally, she has asked for protection for her and her family’s life and compensation for loss of reputation, according to Live Law.

Allegations against Bose

The woman had accused Bose of inappropriately touching her on April 24 and May 2. She wrote a complaint letter to the Raj Bhavan’s officer-in-charge on the day of the second incident.

“[Bose] touched some parts of my body forcefully,” the woman said in the letter. “Even after he sensed that I was feeling uncomfortable, he forced himself again.”

“[Bose] made indecent proposals to me,” she said. “Aide-de-Camp [Manish] Joshi sir told me to go home. I asked him, crying, whether he would have said the same if his wife would have been in my place. He left.”

The complainant also alleged that Officer on Special Duty Sandeep Rajput tried to prevent her from speaking out about the two incidents.

“My mobile was snatched on [Rajput’s] instruction,” she alleged. “He tried to confine me in one room and told the staff not to help me.”

She has accused Rajput of threatening employees at the Raj Bhavan and asking them not to cooperate with the police investigation, reported The Indian Express.

On May 7, she told The Print that the governor was “hiding behind his immunity” and “threatening” his staff not to speak up regarding the allegations of sexual harassment.

The Kolkata Police later filed a first information report against three Raj Bhavan staffers, including the officer on special duty.

On May 24, the Calcutta High Court stayed the proceedings in the case. The single-judge bench of Justice Amrita Sinha observed that Singh had already been granted bail in the case and that the investigation against him was in its preliminary stages.