A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave lawyer Utsav Bains time till Thursday to file his third affidavit to substantiate his claims that three disgruntled employees met with lobbyists to ‘frame’ Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi in a ‘false’ sexual harassment case. The court will continue hearing in the case on Thursday at 10.30 am.
In its order, the court made it clear that its hearing was limited to the allegations of conspiracy to frame CJI Gogoi and to fix judgments and benches, and would in no way have any bearing on the inquiry being carried out by the three-member committee of judges – Justice SA Bobde, Justice V Ramana and Justice Indira Banerjee – on the administrative side.
The bench, comprising Justices Arun Mishra, Rohinton Nariman and Deepak Gupta, had summoned the CBI director, Delhi’s Commissioner of Police and the IB Director to look into the material furnished by Bains, who was present in court. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Attorney-General KK Venugopal were also present.
Bains, who was given a notice to be present in court on Wednesday, submitted his material in a sealed cover to the court. Bains had first made his allegations in a Facebook post before submitting his affidavit. In court, the Attorney-General said that there was a “significant departure” between the post and the affidavit.
Dramatic scenes in the courtroom
When the hearing resumed at 3 pm, the court witnessed some drama after Bains claimed that the AG was doubting his integrity. Justice Nariman then said, “You have no reason to have an iota of doubt on him. He is the most respected member of this Bar. We all look up to him. If you have an iota of doubt we will throw you out.” Bains then started walking out of court, saying, “Since Justice Nariman said he will throw me out, I will walk out myself. “If anybody attacks me personally, I will defend myself," said Bains.
Justice Nariman then called him back, saying, “Nobody is attacking you personally, Mr Venugopal is the greatest gentleman in this court, we all learn from him."
Justice Arun Mishra termed the contents of Bains’s affidavit to be serious and said that they won't release any details to avoid the destruction of evidence. Justice Mishra also said that Utsav must be given full police protection.
“I have CCTV footage, which is real evidence. I am submitting this in court. The accused- mastermind is very powerful,” Utsav reportedly said in court.
The court had taken suo motu cognizance of the "matter of great public importance touching on the independence of the judiciary" and the affidavit filed by Utsav alleging conspiracy.
The affidavit
Utsav, in his affidavit, has said that he came to know about a conspiracy to frame Chief Justice Gogoi during the course of his enquiry after he was approached by a person asking him to appear for the alleged victim, and found missing links in the story.
He claimed that he was informed by "reliable sources" that "certain fixers", who claim to be engaged in illegally managing judgments in exchange for cash are behind this plot as the CJI has taken decisive action to crack down on them.
He said that in the course of his initial inquiry, every 'source' he met had “only the knowledge of the conspiracy against Hon'ble CJI but not the names of the persons involved in hatching and executing the said conspiracy."
In his long affidavit, he alleged that a corporate entity in league with certain fixers had allegedly conspired to frame the CJI in a false case of sexual harassment for creating a situation to force him to resign.
With IANS inputs