The Supreme Court on Thursday said some rich and powerful people want to control its functioning, as it heard for the third time the matter related to allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The court said these “fixers” must go. A bench headed byJustice Arun Mishra said, “People with money power are trying to run theregistry of the top court…this is a really serious matter…people can be killedor maligned if truth is brought forth…”
Justice Mishra said after learning about the alleged networkthat is trying to manipulate the Supreme Court, “we are in anguish”.
He also added that the bench has come to know these fixersare usually represented by senior advocates in the Supreme Court.
“We want to tell the rich and powerful of this countrythat they cannot run the Supreme Court,” said an agitated Justice Mishra.
Advocate Utsav Bains, who has alleged a conspiracy againstthe Chief Justice after a former Supreme Court staffer alleged sexualharassment, submitted a fresh affidavit in the court.
The observations from the bench came after going throughthis affidavit.
Meanwhile, senior advocate Indira Jaising protested that thebench is heavily consumed in probing the defence of the Chief Justice who isfacing allegations of sexual harassment.
She contended that such influence on the investigation wouldprejudice the complaint by the former top court staffer against the ChiefJustice.
Jaisingh also asked the court to probe the credentials ofUtsav Bains, saying people who come to court, must come with clean hands.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta intervened by recommendingthe formation of SIT, but Jaisingh protested and requested the court to conducta judicial inquiry.
As per the Solicitor General’s suggestion regarding theformation of SIT into the matter, the bench said we can look into this aspectof investigation. The court also clarified that this probe would not prejudicethe complaint made by the woman against the Chief Justice.
The bench told Mehta that this is a very serious matter, and”we want to get to the root of this bench fixing issue, and the issue is soserious that we cannot divulge the details.”
The bench observed that some fixer who claims to be arelative of the woman, who leveled sexual harassment charges against the ChiefJustice, approached Utsav Bains for removal of the Chief Justice.
“We don’t know the identity of this person….we need to find out the truth,” said the bench.