India Tomorrow
New Delhi, April 24— The Supreme Court of India on Monday formed a three-judge panel under the chair of the top court’s second senior-most judge to probe into the sexual harassment allegations levelled by a former junior staff of the court against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The panel issued a notice to the woman complainant on Tuesday and asked her to be present in the court on April 26.
The panel headed by Justice S A Bobde includes Justices N.V. Ramana and Indira Banerjee.
“This is going to be an in-house procedure which does not contemplate representation of advocate on behalf of parties. It is not a formal judicial proceeding,” Justice Bobde was quoted as saying by the PTI news agency.
The panel was constituted after much criticism from several quarters of legal fraternity about the decision of the CJI-led bench on Saturday to deal with the issue on judicial side suo moto.
The lawyers’ bodies SCAORA & SCBA and several senior advocates have openly condemned the procedure and said that the CJI was acting as a judge in his own cause.
The sexual harassment allegations surfaced on April 20, when four online portals reported the contents of the 28-page affidavit sent by the woman, who was employed as Junior Court Staff, to all SC judges calling for a probe into the allegations.
In view of the nature of allegations the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court held a detailed discussion on the future course of action on the complaint against Chief Justice Gogoi, a source told IANS.
It was a significant development, as the judges have to save the institution of the judiciary.
On Monday, the Supreme Court lawyers associations sought the constitution of a ‘full court’ to take necessary steps for a fair probe into the matter, and also to protect the basic tenants of natural justice.
On April 20, the Supreme Court had called an urgent hearing on a matter of great public importance touching upon the independence of judiciary and constituted a special bench which comprised of the Chief Justice. A top court bench headed by CJI himself took up the case and rubbished the allegations.
Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the independence of the judiciary is under threat after allegations of sexual harassment against him over which the Supreme Court held an urgent hearing.
“I will sit on this bench and discharge my duties without fear and favour till my tenure is over,” Chief Justice Gogoi said at the urgent hearing on Saturday.
“Things have gone too far. Judiciary cannot be made a scapegoat”, Justice Gogoi said.
There was a larger conspiracy to destabilise the judiciary which has remained independent, he said. There was some bigger force behind the woman, with criminal track record, making sexual harassment charges against him, Justice Gogoi said.
An apex court bench of CJ Gogoi, Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna conducted the hearing at 10.30 a.m. after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta urgently mentioned the matter.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued a notice to advocate Utsav Bains who has alleged that there is a conspiracy to frame Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi in a sexual harassment case.
The bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, while directing the presence of Bains on Wednesday in the court, asked him to produce evidence in support of paras 17 and 20 of his affidavit filed in the apex court on Monday.
—With Inputs From IANS
