In a surprising development, the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Delhi Police Commissioner, and the Intelligence Bureau Chief have been summoned to the Supreme Court for an in-chamber meeting after the Court perused the contents of the affidavit submitted by advocate Utsav Bains.
This was after the Court took very serious note of the contents of the affidavit filed by Utsav Bains in the suo motu case concerning sexual harassment allegations against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
When the matter was taken up today, Bains submitted information regarding the alleged conspiracy to frame CJI Gogoi to the Bench of Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta, in a sealed envelope.
Bains then reacted to the allegations against the Chief Justice of India by saying,
“Let me admit in open court that I am disgusted at the way Bar is divided. I have never seen such kind of cheap tactics. Why should I remain in the profession?”
Attorney General KK Venugopal proceeded to read out Bains’ Facebook post, while Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought a probe by a Special Investigation Team into the whole issue.
“Let this be investigated thoroughly by an SIT under the supervision of the Supreme Court”, said Mehta.
Bains, however, disagreed. He said that he deliberately did not approach the police, since it acts as per Executive directions.
“I did not go to police because police is under the State which is ruled by some political party. So let there be a judicial inquiry.”
He also said that he has specific information on how the whole thing was planned. He said that he would file one more affidavit in that regard.
The Bench, after going through the affidavit, noted that its contents were very serious. Justice Arun Mishra remarked that the current Chief Justice of India had been taking one action after another without fear, and that the current allegations might have been made by some forces to disrupt the same.
He also mentioned the action taken by CJI against two court masters, Tapan Chakraborty and Manav Sharma in the contempt case against Anil Ambani.
“If this is true, then it is very disturbing. It is the first time a Chief Justice of India has been taking such actions. One was the action against Tapan Chakraborty and Manav Sharma. No CJI had courage to take [such a] decision.
He was taking action after action without fear. That is tried to be (unclear) by some forces.”
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising tried to intervene and make submissions, but the Bench refused to give her audience. It stated that it is more concerned about the contents of the affidavit.
“We should be more concerned about what is there in that affidavit.”
The Court also made it clear that it would not disclose the contents of the affidavit for now.
“We are not going to say anything about the contents of this affidavit”, Mishra J. said.
The Bench then said that it would like to meet high ranking investigating officers. After deliberations with the Attorney General and Solicitor General, the Bench directed the Director, the Delhi Police Commissioner and the IB Chief to meet the Bench in chambers at 12.30.
The Bench will re-assemble at 3 pm.
The Court also directed that Utsav Bains be provided adequate protection.
After reports of the allegations first broke last Saturday, a Special Bench was immediately convened to look into the matter of grave public importance touching upon the independence of the judiciary. This Special Bench had comprised CJI Ranjan Gogoi along with Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna, However, the Court order passed that day did not reflect the name of CJI Gogoi.
Subsequently, the present Bench was constituted to take up the matter. Yesterday, the Bench decided to summon Advocate Utsav Bains before the Court, to hear him on certain averments made by him claiming that there is a conspiracy to frame CJI Gogoi. Bain has filed an affidavit to this effect before the Supreme Court.
[Read Order]
