The Supreme Court on Saturday morning held an unusual sitting during which the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi said “bigger forces” wanted to “deactivate the office of the Chief Justice of India”, referring to the sexual harassment charges levelled against him.
At a hurriedly convened court session presided by the CJI, Gogoi termed the allegations levelled by a 35-year-old woman and published by some news portals as “unbelievable”.
But the special bench, which included Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna, did not pass any gag order, leaving it to the “wisdom of media” to show restraint and act responsibly so that independence of judiciary is not affected.
A three-judge bench headed by Gogoi was constituted after a sworn affidavit by the woman, copies of which were sent to the residences of 22 apex court judges, became public.
Web portals published details of the allegations of the woman, a junior court assistant who was dismissed from service in December 2018. In her affidavit, the woman claimed that she and her family suffered harassment for refusing the alleged sexual advances which took place last year.
During the hearing, which lasted for about 30 minutes, Gogoi said the independence of the judiciary was under “very serious threat” and “unscrupulous allegations” of sexual harassment had been levelled against the CJI as some “bigger force” wanted to “deactivate” the office of the Chief Justice of India. He did not elaborate on who the “bigger force” was.
At the hearing, also attended by Attorney General K K Venugopal and senior members of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Gogoi said, “I do not think I should stoop too low even to deny these allegations. But that comes after 20 years of selfless service as a judge.”
“I have a bank balance of Rs 6.80 lakh. There is Rs 21.80 lakh in my bank account out of which Rs 15 lakh has been given by my daughter for the repair of my house at Guwahati. I have around Rs 40 lakh in provident fund. These are my total assets. When I had become a judge, I had much more. Nobody can catch me on money. People have to find something and they have found this,” Gogoi said.
Stating that the “judiciary cannot be made a scapegoat”, the CJI said the issue had cropped up when a bench headed by him is scheduled to hear “many, many sensitive cases” next week.
But Gogoi’s presence in the Bench also raised eyebrows, with some citing conflict of interest.