Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi Monday got a clean chit from the Supreme Court’s In-House Inquiry Committee which “has found no substance” in the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by a former woman employee of the apex court.
The 3-member Committee, which completed its task in 14 days,proceeded ex-parte as the woman had opted out of the inquiry on April 30 afterparticipating for three days.
Immediately after the office of apex court’s SecretaryGeneral came out with the findings of the committee, the woman issued a pressstatement saying that she was “highly disappointed and dejected”.
She said “gross injustice” has been done to her asa woman citizen of India and “worst fears” have come true, and allhope of justice and redress from the highest Court of the land have beenshattered.
She said that she will consult her lawyer and decide on thenext steps.
A notice by the office of Supreme Court Secretary Generalsaid the report of the Committee, headed by Justice S A Bobde, “is notliable to be made public”.
The Committee, also comprising two woman judges of the apexcourt — Justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee — had on May 1 recordedthe statement of the CJI who had appeared before it.
“The In-House Committee has found no substance in theallegations contained in the complaint dated April 19, 2019 of a formeremployee of the Supreme Court of India. Please take note that in case of IndiraJaising vs Supreme Court of India and Anr (2003), it has been held that thereport of a committee constituted as a part of the In-House Procedure is notliable to be made public,” the notice said.
It further said: “The In House Committee has submittedits report dated May 5, 2019 in accordance with the In House Procedure, to thenext senior judge competent to receive the report and also sent a copy to thejudge concerned, namely, the CJI.”
The Committee submitted its report to Justice Arun Mishra —number four in seniority.
After the CJI, Justice Bobde is the next senior most judge,followed by Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra and R F Nariman.
The findings of the panel were not submitted to JusticeRamana as he was part of the Committee when it was constituted but recusedhimself after the former woman employee, who is the complainant, expressedcertain reservations over his inclusion.
After opting out of the Committee inquiry, she had issued apress statement describing as “very frightening” the atmosphere ofthe panel and raised various objections including denial of her lawyer’spresence.
The panel was constituted on April 23, 2019.
On April 25, Justice Ramana recused himself after thecomplainant expressed her reservations over his inclusion on the ground that heis a close friend of the CJI and a regular visitor to his house.
In Justice Ramana’s place, Justice Bobde had inductedJustice Malhotra as she had also alleged that the Committee was not formed inaccordance with the Vishaka guidelines laid by the top court.
In a letter to Justice Bobde, the woman had said that as perthe guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in the Vishaka judgement, forholding inquiry into the allegations of sexual harassment at work place, thecommittee must have a majority of women.
Justice Bobde on April 23 had told PTI, “This is goingto be an in-house procedure which does not contemplate representation ofadvocate on behalf of parties. It is not a formal judicial proceeding.”
Though there was no time frame to complete the inquiry,Justice Bobde had said the future course of action will depend on “whatcomes out of the inquiry” which will be “confidential”.
The allegations against the CJI had become public on April20 when some news web portals had come out with the stories.
The woman had sent her affidavit to 22 judges of the apexcourt about the alleged sexualharassment.
Within hours of the allegations coming into public domain,an unprecedented hearing by a bench comprising CJI and Justices Mishra andSanjiv Khanna had taken place on April 20 which was Saturday.
Though the CJI had recused himself midway of the hearing, hehad described the allegations against him as “unbelievable” and hadsaid a larger conspiracy was behind it and he would not stoop so low even todeny these allegations.
Later, a fresh bench comprising Justices Mishra, R F Narimanand Deepak Gupta was set up to hear the matter which appointed retired apexcourt judge, Justice A K Patnaik to inquire into the allegations of largerconspiracy to frame CJI Gogi and fixing of benches in the top court.
The allegation was made by a advocate Utsav Singh Bains whohad filed an affidavit in this regard.
The top court said the inquiry by will not deal with theallegations of sexual harassment against the CJI and added the outcome of theinquiry will not affect the in-house committee which is dealing with thecomplaint against the CJI.
Hours before the information on the submission of the reportbecame public, the apex court agreed to hear a plea seeking direction to theCBI to lodge an FIR into the alleged conspiracy to “fix” Chief Justiceof India.
The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a benchcomprising Justices S A Bobde and S A Nazeer by advocate M L Sharma, whoclaimed that there was a conspiracy to malign the CJI in a “concocted,false sexual harassment” case.”What is the urgency? You have filed it andit will come up for hearing,” the bench said added, “It will belisted in due course,” it added.