New Delhi: The Supreme Court termed Sunday as ‘wholly incorrect’ a media report that said that justices RF Nariman and DY Chandrachud met Justice SA Bobde, who is heading the in-house committee inquiring into sexual harassment allegations against Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi.
A statement issued by the office of the Supreme Court’s secretary- general said it is ‘most unfortunate’ that a leading newspaper chose to state that the two judges met justice Bobde, Friday evening.
The statement said the in-house committee, which is deliberating on the issue concerning the CJI, deliberates on its own without any input from any other judge of the apex court.
The statement said, “It is most unfortunate that a leading newspaper has chosen to state that justices RF Nariman and DY Chandrachud together met Justice SA Bobde on Friday evening, i.e. May 3, 2019. This is wholly incorrect. The in-house committee which is deliberating on the issue concerning the CJI, deliberates on its own without any input of any other judge of this court.”
The report said Sunday that justices Nariman and Chandrachud had met justice Bobde and had expressed their view that the three-member committee should not go ahead with the proceeding ex parte.
It also said that justices Nariman and Chandrachud had suggested appointment of an advocate as an amicus curie for assisting the in-house committee.
The former woman employee of the apex court, who levelled the sexual harassment allegations, had opted herself out of the inquiry raising several grievances, including denial of permission to have her lawyer during proceedings.
A source had earlier said the woman opted not to participate in the proceedings despite being told about consequence that the committee can go ahead with its task ex-parte. She had appeared before the panel for three days.
Earlier while denying the lawyer of the woman to be present during the hearing, Justice Bobde had said, “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.” He had clarified that there is no time frame to complete the inquiry and future course of action will depend on ‘what comes out of the inquiry’ which will be ‘confidential’.
Besides Justice Bobde, other members in the committee are justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee.