The Supreme Court on Thursday directed authorities to reinstate a judicial officer who had resigned from service in 2014 after alleging sexual harassment by a Madhya Pradesh High Court judge, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai held that that she had not resigned voluntarily, but under coercion.

The judicial officer, who was posted as an additional district and sessions judge in Madhya Pradesh’s Gwalior city, had resigned after being transferred to Sidhi town.

In a letter sent to the chief justice of India, she had alleged that the transfer order had been issued as she had rejected the advances made by one of the then sitting judges of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, according to Bar and Bench.

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She had also filed a sexual harassment complaint against the judge.

In December 2017, a three-member committee set up by the Rajya Sabha to look into allegations against the judge had cleared him of the charges of sexual harassment. The committee said that a “higher degree of proof” was required to prove the allegations.

However, the committee’s report had noted that the transfer order against the judicial officer was “punitive, irregular and unjustified”. The committee had also said that the woman had to resign as a result of “unbearable circumstances”.

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The woman moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 2017 seeking that she be reinstated to her post based on the committee’s recommendations. In 2018, she filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court after the High Court rejected her plea.

The central government also opposed her reinstatement as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted to the Supreme Court that allowing the woman’s petition would “stigmatise an entire institution”.

However, on Thursday, the Supreme Court set aside the Madhya Pradesh High Court order and directed that the woman officer be reinstated. The woman will be reappointed as an additional district judge and there will be discontinuity in her service records, the Supreme Court order said. However, she will not receive wages for the period she was out of service.