New Delhi: The Supreme Court sought Tuesday response from lawyer Utsav Singh Bains, who had made a sensational claim that there was a ‘conspiracy’ to make CJI Ranjan Gogoi resign by ‘framing him’ in a false case of sexual harassment.
A three-judge special bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra issued the notice to Bains and sought his response with regard to his claim that he was also offered Rs 1.5 crore to represent a former apex court woman employee and arrange a presser against the CJI at the Press Club of India here.
The bench, which also comprised Justices RF Nariman and Deepak Gupta, has now fixed the case titled as a matter of ‘great public importance touching upon the independence of judiciary’, for hearing Wednesday at 10:30am.
The lawyer had filed an affidavit Monday following the unprecedented hearing Saturday during which the CJI had said a ‘larger conspiracy’ was behind it and that he would not stoop too low even to deny these allegations.
Bains has said, in his affidavit, that he was shocked to hear the allegations and was willing to represent the complainant. The lawyer then sought an interaction with the complainant to verify the claims, he said while adding the meeting was denied which gave rise to the suspicion.
In the hurriedly called hearing n Saturday after the allegations had surfaced up, the apex court had said independence of judiciary was under ‘very serious threat’ and ‘unscrupulous allegations’ of sexual harassment have been levelled against the Chief Justice of India as some ‘bigger force’ wanted to ‘deactivate’ the office of the CJI.
The ‘unusual and extraordinary’ hearing was held after stories were published on some news portals on the allegations made by an ex-employee of the apex court against the CJI. The former employee has described two incidents of alleged molestation by Gogoi in her affidavit, both of which allegedly took place in October 2018, only days after he was appointed as the CJI, and her subsequent persecution.
PTI