New Delhi: Alleging sustained harassment and judiciary’s failure in action, Shahdol civil judge Aditi Kumar Sharma resigned from her duties on Monday (July 28), hours after the accused district judge was elevated to the Madhya Pradesh high court.The resignation comes weeks after the judge had written to the Supreme Court collegium opposing district judge Rajesh Kumar Gupta’s elevation to the high court. Prior to that, she had also complained to the President of India, the Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, the Registrar General and the Supreme Court.The news comes as The Tribune reported that BJP MP Subhash Barala’s son Vikas, out on bail in a sexual harassment case, has been removed from the list of law officers in Haryana. He had been appointed as assistant advocate general amidst outrage and criticism.In a strongly-worded letter, Sharma wrote, “With every ounce of my moral strength and emotional exhaustion, I hereby resign from judicial service not because I lost faith in justice, but because justice lost its way inside the very institution sworn to protect it”She accused Gupta of subjecting her to “unrelenting harassment” for years, saying that the institution had failed her and failed to uphold the very principles it swears to protect.“For years, I was subjected to unrelenting harassment – not merely of the body or the mind, but of my dignity, my voice, and my very existence as a woman judge who dared to speak up against a senior judge Shri Rajesh Kumar Gupta wielding unaccountable power. “I followed every legitimate route – wrote to the Hon’ble Registrar General, the Hon’ble Chief justice of this Hon’ble High Court, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, the Hon’ble President of the Republic – hoping that if not justice, at least hearing might be granted,” she wrote, adding that the only verdict she received was “silence”.“In that silence, I saw the brutal truth of our times that integrity is optional, power is protection, and those who speak the truth are punished more severely than those who violate it,” she said. Sharma was also among six women judges whose services were terminated by the Madhya Pradesh government in June 2023, citing unsatisfactory performance. The Supreme Court had taken cognisance and spoke against the high court’s criteria behind sacking Sharma.According to a report by The Print, in 2023, Gupta’s name was rejected by the SC collegium headed by then CJI D.Y. Chandrachud, in the wake of some complaints, including that of Sharma’s.The high court chief justice was asked to conduct an inquiry into the complaint. However, Gupta was given a clean chit following which, his name re-sent to the collegium in April for fresh consideration. According to the report, Sharma was never called to record her statement when this inquiry took place.Concluding her letter, Sharma wrote that the resignation is not a closure but “a statement of protest”. “Let it remain in your archives as a reminder that there once was a woman judge in Madhya Pradesh who gave her all to justice, and was broken by the system that preached it the loudest,” she said.“And if even one judge, one registrar, one member of the Collegium reads this and feels unease then perhaps, my voice has done more justice than my robe ever could,” she concluded.