Indian women protest against rape
Indian women protesting against rape.

A second former Supreme Court judge in India has been accused of sexual harassment - less than a week after judge AK Ganguly resigned after he was accused of inappropriate conduct by an employee.

The unnamed second woman made an official complaint to the Chief Justice of India, P Sathasivam, that her boss, a former judge whose identity has not been revealed, had sexually harassed her.

The woman began an internship under the accused in May 2011. She said that she had been "strongly disturbed and upset" with the behaviour of the judge and left the internship halfway through, sources told Indian Express.

Sathasivam said that he could not act for her and advised her to "take appropriate action under law".

In her court submission, she detailed two instances detailing how she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the former judge.

Naina Kapuir, an expert in Law, Equality and Gender, told IBTimes UK: "From the outside such stories seem shocking. But for me they become sources of inspiration because women, young women, are speaking up.

"That wouldn't have happened a few years ago. Its a sign, however small, of a cultural shift a sense that women don't go to work to be sexually violated. They go to earn a living.

"As for how safe is India for women, it is as safe as it is anywhere. Silence is no longer an option.

"Hasn't that been the dilemma of women everywhere who silently endure those intangible sexual violations at the workplace?"

Sexual harassment was first recognised as an offence in India by the landmark Vishaka judgment in 1997.

According to a 2013 report by Amnesty International: "Women and girls [in India] face persistent discrimination and the threat of rape and other acts of violence, particularly in the north, and often at the hands of family members through dowry deaths, honour killings, and female foeticide."