No substance in allegations, says Supreme Court-appointed Committee
New Delhi: A Supreme Court-appointed Committee has given a clean chit to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, who was accused of sexual harassment.
“The In-house Committee has found no substance in the allegations contained in the complaint dated April 19, 2019, of a former employee of the Supreme Court of India,” said a statement.
The Panel comprised Justice S.A. Bobde, the second-most senior Judge in the Apex Court, Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Indu Malhotra.
The Committee submitted its report on May 5, in accordance with the “in-house procedure to the next senior-most Judge competent to receive the report and also sent a copy of the report to the Judge concerned, namely the Chief Justice India.” The Court also said that the “in-house procedure was not liable to be made public.”
The Committee was formed after the woman on April 19 levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Gogoi, reportedly in a letter addressed to 22 Judges of the Supreme Court.
On Sunday, the Apex Court issued a statement declining that Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Rohinton Nariman had met Bobde, who was heading the Panel probing the sexual harassment allegations against Gogoi.
It was claimed that Chandrachud and Nariman met the members of the In-house Committee on the evening of May 3 to register their concerns over continuing with the probe against Gogoi in the absence of the complainant.
In a press release issued on Sunday, Supreme Court Secretary General Sanjeev Kalgaonkar said: “This is wholly incorrect. The In-house Committee which is deliberating on the issue concerning the honourable Chief Justice of India deliberates on its own without any input from any other honourable Judge of this Court.”
On April 30, the former employee of the Supreme Court, who had accused Gogoi of sexually harassing her, said that she would no longer appear before the Panel as she felt that she was “not likely to get justice.” The woman said she felt “quite intimidated and nervous” in the presence of the three Supreme Court Judges.
This post was published on May 7, 2019 7:56 pm