New Delhi: The Supreme Court held a special hearing on Saturday after sexual harassment allegations were levelled against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by a former court staffer.
CJI Gogoi, himself heading a three-judge bench, said the allegations showed that “judiciary is under very serious threat”.
Although the bench refused to pass any order, the CJI clarified that the charges against him will be examined by other senior judges and not by himself.
“The judiciary is under a very serious threat… good people will never become judges if this is how they are targeted. There’s nothing more valuable than honour for me. And I had to constitute this bench to say this from the highest seat,” Justice Gogoi said at the hurriedly called hearing.
Justice Gogoi further said that he thinks the allegations were a plot against him and to “deactivate the office of the CJI. “I don’t think that this can be of a plot of a junior assistant. There is a bigger plot. They want to deactivate the office of CJI,” he said.
He said that as nobody could catch him on money, people had to find something and they found this – referring to the sexual harassment allegations levelled by the staffer in an affidavit sent to 22 SC judges.
“After 20 years of selfless service as judge, I have bank balance of Rs 6.80 lakh. My peon has more assets and money than me,” he said.
Justices Arun Mishra and Sanjiv Khanna, the two other judges on the bench, also said that the court cannot function if the judges are attacked.