Lawyer Mihira Sood alleges she was sexually harassed by a senior
After a young lawyer blogged that she was sexually harassed by a Supreme Court judge, more women are coming out with similar allegations that have rocked the legal fraternity.
Another lawyer, Mihira Sood, has alleged that she was harassed by a senior lawyer for a long time, even after she stopped assisting him.
Her account on the website Legally India came as the lawyer who first uncovered the controversy with her blog
told a probe panel of Supreme Court judges that she did not want to press charges against the judge who allegedly harassed her; she just wanted people to be aware of "what happens in high places."
Ms Sood, who is currently studying at the Columbia Law School, says she decided to come out with her story after battling doubts for several years, admitting she "did not have the courage to rock the boat" until she read a fellow lawyer's blog.
"I have made my peace with it and moved on, I wanted to raise the issues mentioned in my blog," she told NDTV today.
In her blog, Ms Sood writes: "The advances were not physical; it was more in the nature of an obsessive romantic and sexual interest, starting with inappropriately timed phone calls to flowers, dinner invitations, and then sexually explicit email forwards and SMS jokes to more explicit expressions. This wasn't courtship, it was pursuit by a man old enough to be my father, who knew perfectly well how difficult it would be for me to reject him."
(Read Mihira Sood's story here)
She also clarifies that she does not want a case; she wanted to support others who had suffered similar harassment.
"In case anyone thinks these are one-off cases, let me correct that and say this is rife, I know dozens of women who have suffered far worse than I have, and litigation, with its powerful and entitled men and its intricate networks and hierarchies that stifle any challenge, is quite possibly one of the most sexist professions in the country," she says.
Last week, another lawyer had responded to the first blog and commented on Facebook that she too was harassed when she interned for the Supreme Court judge. Unlike Mihira Sood, this lawyer has refused to go public with her allegations.