At the centre of controversy: Ranjan Gogoi. The Supreme Court has said that "fixing" has no place in the judiciary and it will go to "the bottom of the conspiracy" to identify those involved as it heard a case pertaining to conspiracy to frame the Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in a sexual harassment case.
A bench, headed by Justice Arun Mishra, took a very serious note of advocate Utsav Bains’ affidavit, which claimed that conspiracy of levelling an allegation of sexual harassment against the CJI was hatched by two apex court staffers recently sacked in connection with the Ericsson case order.
The staffers were charged with tampering with the court’s order, in collusion with powerful corporate lobbyists linked with the “cash for judgement” in the Supreme Court.
As at the beginning of the second phase of hearing at 3 pm, Bains handed over some documents to the bench, senior advocate Indira Jaising sought to know the nature of these documents. The bench, however, said that these documents were highly confidential and it may not be appropriate to let her know about it.
Bains told the court that the two conspirators have met in person and he was waiting for it to happen. He responded positively when Justice Mishra inquired if he was carrying a mobile phone.
The SC bench, which had earlier met the chiefs of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Intelligence Bureau and the Delhi Police and shared the details of Bains’ affidavit, said that a decision on ordering of high level probe regarding the conspiracy will be taken on Thursday. Bains will file an additional affidavit in the court on Thursday.
Justice Mishra said that Bains will have to corroborate his contentions regarding former SC employees hatching a conspiracy in collusion with some powerful lobbyists. If Bains fails, then the court could begin proceedings against him too, he added.
“Fixing has no role in the judiciary….we will go after these fixers in the court… We want to get to the root of this matter. Identify, who are these people playing with the judiciary….the information regarding fixing circle in the Supreme Court has come from an advocate. There needs to be an inquiry into this,” he said.
At this, Jaising said she is “deeply concerned” and expressed concern that this hearing might prejudice the proceedings before the SC panel probing the complaint filed by the “victim”.
Justice Mishra, however, stressed that both are independent enquiries and not inter-linked. “In this, we are only on this affidavit which has raised serious issues pertaining to integrity and independence of the institution,” he told Jaising.
Stressing allegations have been made regarding fixing in the apex court, the bench said: “We need to address this fraud… we like the Attorney General to assist the bench….we need to get to the bottom of this conspiracy.”
It also ordered the police should continue to provide protection to Bains.
The matter is listed for further hearing on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a Delhi court adjourned Delhi Police’s plea seeking cancellation of bail to a former Supreme Court staffer who has accused Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment.
The former staffer was arrested last month based on an FIR filed by a Naveen Kumar on March 3, accusing her of bribery and cheating. She has been out on bail since March 12. The investigation in the case was being probed by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Manish Khurana adjourned the case till May 23 after he was informed that a copy of the application had not been served to the complainant, Naveen Kumar.
Meanwhile, the former Supreme Court staffer’s advocate V.K. Ohri, who had moved an application seeking release of her mobile phone and computer CPU from Delhi Police, withdrew it saying that he will move it later at an appropriate stage.
The Supreme Court called the Directors of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Delhi Police Commissioner to look into the material furnished by advocate Utsav Bains in support of his allegations that Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was framed in a false sexual harassment case.
A bench comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Fali Nariman and Deepak Gupta will meet all the three officers.
Bains on Monday filed a sworn affidavit claiming that a conspiracy had been hatched against the Chief Justice. He blamed an airline founder, gangster Dawood Ibrahim and an alleged fixer and claimed that he was offered up to Rs 1.5 crore by one Ajay to level allegations against Chief Justice Gogoi.
After receiving the affidavit (submitted by Advocate Bains in a sealed cover), Justice Gupta said: “We are not disclosing anything about the affidavit. Very serious issues have been raised.”
Justice Mishra said: “It is something more than an inquiry, right now we are not on inquiry.”
When senior counsel Indira Jaising wanted to address the court on the harassment aspect of the “episode”, Justice Mishra said: “We should be more concerned with the contents of the affidavit than anything else.”
To Jaising’s argument that she was referring to a parallel inquiry and did not know the contents related to the conspiracy into the issue before the court, Justice Mishra said that the proceedings of the court were being disturbed.
Referring to a “very disturbing episode” where two court masters had to be sacked for changing the order of the court on the personal appearance of a corporate tycoon, Justice Mishra said: “This has been happening but no Chief Justice had the courage to take such action. But now action was being taken without fear.”
On finding that advocate Bains had not been provided with security as per its Tuesday order, the court directed that he be given security cover till further orders.
When Bains told the court that he wanted to file another affidavit on a critical piece of information that he was working on, Justice Mishra told him to write it in the affidavit with his hand or type it himself to ensure secrecy. (IANS)