New Delhi: A former apex court employee, who levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, appeared on Friday before the in-house inquiry panel which is dealing with her complaint.
The three-member panel, headed by Justice SA Bobde, conducted its first in-chamber sitting during which the woman and the secretary general of the apex court appeared before it, an official source said.
The source said the secretary general was present before the panel, also comprising two women judges — Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee — with all documents and materials.
During the hearing, only the woman was present and the secretary general was not privy to the proceedings, the source said.
The advocate who had accompanied the woman to the apex court was also not part of the proceedings, the source said, adding that next date of the hearing would be fixed by the panel shortly.
On April 23, Justice Bobde had told PTI that the in-house procedure did not contemplate representation of advocates on behalf of parties as it was not a formal judicial proceedings.
“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 said.
He had clarified that there was no time frame to complete the inquiry and the future course of action will depend on “what comes out of the inquiry” which will be “confidential”.
Justice Indu Malhotra was Thursday appointed a new member of the committee after Justice N V Ramana recused himself.
The development followed the complainant’s letter to the panel on Wednesday, expressing reservation over the inclusion of Justice Ramana on the ground that he is a close friend of the CJI and a regular visitor to his house.
In the letter, she had also raised question over the presence of only one woman apex court judge — Indira Banerjee — in the panel set up to examine her allegations against the CJI. According to her, it was not in accordance with the Vishaka Guidelines.
Justice Ramana, while recusing himself, had termed as “baseless and unfounded” the “aspersions” cast by the woman on him.
He said he recused only to “avoid any suspicion that this institution will not conduct itself in keeping with the highest standards of judicial propriety and wisdom”.
The woman’s allegations against the CJI were brought into the public domain by some news web portals on April 20.
She had worked at Justice Gogoi’s home office in Delhi and the allegations were carried by the news portals based on her affidavit which was sent to 22 judges of the top court.
In her affidavit, the woman described two incidents of alleged harassment, days after Justice Gogoi was appointed CJI last October and her subsequent persecution.
The woman alleged that she was removed from service after she rebuffed his “sexual advances”. She claimed that her husband and brother-in-law, both of whom were head constables, were suspended for a 2012 criminal case that had been mutually resolved.
Everybody knows that in high court and supreme court ,bench hunting is common.in advocate chamber,clerks of senior adv openly talk about corruption,which are malleable,which are not.in big gun cases ,how judgement are manipulated,how judgement are fixed,how big guns are protected,how law is differently defined.anil Ambani case is classic cases of manipulation with big stake.lots of such things daily happen.even rape or sexual harrassment charge is wrongly activated in most of the cases.a lot of persons of every profession are involved in taking revenge by falsely filing mischievous cases against highly respected personality.every profession is earning a dirty name.what type of a country it is becoming.govt servant ,media ,doctors ,advocate CA , judges,political leaders all having unethical standards in their profession and having no shame in society for these acts.media is reporting these case as if they are reforming the society and maintaining a highly respected job .we as citizen must try to improve our ethical standard.hope every one will ponder over it
Woman ,as we know is regarded as a significant character inside our society and it’s the Woman only who has to be very very careful to maintain their portfolio and character in tact. Since the case of any woman’s characteristics is in question ,no outside Agencies can protect her Prestige back to normal…Here a woman herself has to act safeguarding her future . Before landing on a muddy ground ,she should have been more cautious to come under the scanner ,where her total prestigeous life in society is under threat and turmoil. We don’t know how long and what for ,a respectable woman is on the Screen…. it’s not praiseworthy.
They conspired etc. is Ok. But how could they make the CJI go and hug the lady ?