The Supreme Court Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian has closed the case registered by it in 2019 to probe the alleged conspiracy against the independence of judiciary as sexual harassment charges were levelled against the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi, as per Bar & Bench.

The case titled In Re: Matter of Great Public Importance Touching upon the Independence of Judiciary was listed today, on February 18 after one year and nine months. An enquiry panel headed by former top court judge, Justice AK Patnaik submitted a report stating that a conspiracy behind the sexual harassment allegations cannot be “ruled out”.

According to LiveLaw, the report also stated that certain stances taken by former CJI Gogoi during his tenure could have led to the sexual misconduct allegations. The report also referred to an Intelligence Bureau input that several persons were unhappy with Justice Gogoi for driving the Assam-NRC process.  

So, the Bench observed that there is no point in prolonging the case as acquiring electronic evidence is unlikely and disposed of the matter. The court said, “The veracity of the allegations levelled by lawyer Utsav Singh Bains could not be verified completely due to the limited access of records and other collaborative material.”

In April 2019, a junior court assistant accused Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment, which came to light after certain media outlets reported about it. Subsequently, the top court took cognisance of the allegations and registered a suo motu case that was listed on the same day in open court, as reported by Bar & Bench.

Defying the principles of natural justice, Nemo judex in causa sua which means “no one is judge in his own cause”, Ranjan Gogoi sat on his own matter and denied all allegations of misconduct pressed by the supreme court staffer.

During the course of the proceedings, as reported by LiveLaw, the Supreme Court also considered an affidavit filed by Advocate Utsav Bains claiming that he was offered Rs. 1.5 crores by someone to frame sexual harassment allegations against the former Chief Justice.

In May, 2019, a three-judge committee cleared Ranjan Gogoi’s name in the case and concluded that there was no substance in the allegations made by the employee of the Supreme Court. Gogoi, who served as the 46th Chief Justice of India was appointed as a member of the Rajya Sabha by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind in March, 2020.

Related:

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On Monday, the President of India nominated former Supreme Court Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha. Gogoi had retired in November 2019. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued a gazette notification to announce his nomination to the RS. The notification may be viewed here:  

Speaking to media persons in Guwahati on Tuesday, Gogoi reportedly said, “I have accepted it since I have a strong conviction that the legislative and the judiciary must at some point of time work together for nation-building. My presence in parliament will be an opportunity to project the views of the judiciary before the legislature and vice versa.”

Gogoi is perhaps best known for presiding over the Supreme Court case regarding the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was being updated in his home state of Assam. Gogoi also headed the SC bench that handed the land in Ayodhya to the infant deity and the akhara, and asked the state to provide separate land for construction of a mosque. In fact, he had allegedly put Kashmir related hearings on hold to prioritise the Ayodhya hearing. He had also declined a plea to probe the Rafale deal and dodged a ‘Me Too’ bullet when an in-house panel gave him a clean chit in a matter related to sexual harassment.

In fact, in May 2019, Gogoi, in a shocking turn of events in connection with a petition by activist Harsh Mander against the inhuman condition in detention camps, had refused to recuse himself from the case and instead removed Mander as the petitioner! Mander had appealed to the CJI to recuse himself in light of a few statements made by the CJI at the previous hearing which Mander thought displayed bias against so called foreigners.

At the previous hearing while responding to the affidavit filed by Assam Chief Secretary Alok Kumar, Gogoi had allegedly remarked, “You have no right to continue in office after authoring such an affidavit… This court will not be party to such an unheard of arrangement… You have 900 detainees when lakhs of illegal foreigners have already intermingled with the local population. Most of these foreigners are in the voters’ list and are taking part in the political system of this country.”  

Mander had filed an application demanding Gogoi’s recusal “in the interest of justice, in the larger interest of the institution.” Mander submitted he feared the CJI’s alleged bias against non-citizens would affect the outcome in the case. Dismissing Mander’s recusal application, the CJI had reportedly said, “Recusal is destruction of the institution. We are not recusing. We will not allow anybody to browbeat this institution.” Mander’s name has been removed as petitioner and been replaced with the Supreme Court Legal Services Authority.

There have been other allegations against Gogoi of deciding in favour of the regime. Caravan documented these in this scathing piece.

Predictably, Gogoi’s RS nomination led to outrage. Congress heavyweight Kapil Sibal took a not so subtle dig when he compared Gogoi to Justice HR Khanna in his tweet:

Justice H R Khanna remembered for :

1) his integrity
2)standing up to govt.
3) upholding rule of law

Ranjan Gogoi for

lapping up a Rajya Sabha nomination for

1) being saved by govt.
2) standing in line with it
3) compromising his own and the integrity of the institution

— Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) March 17, 2020

Meanwhile former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha hoped Gogoi would decline the nomination:

I hope ex-cji Ranjan Gogoi would have the good sense to say ‘NO’ to the offer of Rajya Sabha seat to him. Otherwise he will cause incalculable damage to the reputation of the judiciary.

— Yashwant Sinha (@YashwantSinha) March 16, 2020

All India Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra tweeted:

Fmr CJI Gogoi nominated to Rajya Sabha! Why am I not surprised?
Any propriety, Sir?
He directed NRC exercise
Ram Mandir in hurried hearings
Refusal to hear J&K habeas corpus
Immunity from law in own sexual harassment case
Politician or judge all along, ye Greedy Lord? pic.twitter.com/af3IdhSf1a

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) March 16, 2020

But perhaps the biggest stinger came in the form of The Telegraph’s headline Kovind, not Covid, did it. The scathing piece also shot down comparisons to former CJI Ranganath Mishra who had presided over the anti-Sikh riots case and also became a RS MP, saying, “Justice Misra became a Rajya Sabha member only in July 1998, almost seven years after stepping down as CJI in late 1991. In between, he had served as chairman of the National Human Rights Commission and then joined the Congress. He was elected, not nominated, to the Upper House.”

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